Dell gets new European boss

Dell has appointed a new president for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, in the form of David Marmonti, who has been promoted internally. According to the company, this will be the final piece in the management team Michael Dell has been building since he became chief executive again in January.

The PC manufacturer has recently courted controversy, first with laptops catching fire and then with issues over its allocation of executive share options, which finally resulted in the loss of its chief executive Kevin Rollins and other key executives.

On Thursday, the company will announce its widely anticipated results for the quarter ended on 31 December. Analysts are predicting that, while Dell's performance is likely to be satisfactory, it will need to innovate to boost its value, with at least one analyst suggesting that Dell needs to move into retail stores, anathema to a company devoted to the online market.

Marmonti joined Dell in 1998 from AT&T, and was most recently head of the public business group where he was responsible for public sector business. Before that he headed up mid-market strategy at Dell.

He is now heading up the EMEA business "because of his strong leadership skills and balance of experience in consumer and commercial customer sales and marketing", the company said in a statement. "His recent experience managing EMEA home and small business will help maintain continuity in the leadership transition and give this team an advantage as he builds the business in EMEA in the coming years."