WorldWide Tech & Science. Francisco De Jesús.
Hewlett-Packard on Wednesday confirmed that former WebOS chief Stephen DeWitt is taking on a new role as business marketing lead in HP's newly formed Enterprise Group.
DeWitt, who was previously senior vice president and general manager of HP's WebOS global business unit, will begin his new role on May 1. He will report to Chief Marketing Officer Marty Homlish, under whom HP recently consolidated marketing efforts across all its business units, an HP spokesperson told CRN.
"I thought he did an amazing job at PSG – he is passionate and charismatic, and he gets stuff done," said Kristin Rogers, executive vice president of sales and marketing at PC Mall, a Torrance, Calif.-based HP partner.
HP CEO Meg Whitman told CRN in January that DeWitt had been working with her on "special projects" and would continue to play an important strategic role at the Palo Alto, Calif.-based company. "He's not going away," Whitman said at the time. "He's been working on a couple of special projects for me as I came in, around sales force and go-to-market, which he knows incredibly well."
Ex-HP CEO Leo Apotheker tapped DeWitt to head up HP’s WebOS business in an executive reshuffle last July. DeWitt replaced Jon Rubinstein, the former Palm CEO known as the father of WebOS, who left HP in January.
DeWitt is an outspoken figure in HP's executive ranks, and last March he lambasted Apple for ignoring the channel, suggesting that HP’s strength in this area could prove an important differentiator in the mobility space.
Even after HP killed the TouchPad, DeWitt insisted that WebOS would eventually be the operating system linking a wide range of connected devices "The WebOS is not dead," DeWitt said at the time. “We’re going to continue to evolve it, update and support it. We stand by it."
