Acer confirms departure of UK chief

PC vendor's UK managing director will leave the firm at the end of 2011 but will hand over day-to-day responsibilities early next month

Beleaguered PC vendor Acer has confirmed that its UK managing director, Bobby Watkins, has handed in his resignation and will leave the company at the end of the year.

In the meantime, Acer has appointed Neil Marshall, the firm's director of global sales and marketing transformation in EMEA, to take over Watkins' job.

In a statement, Acer said Watkins (pictured) will leave the company on 31 December, but relinquish his day-to-day responsibilities on 5 November.

"Acer would like to thank Bobby for his significant contribution and to wish him every success for the future," the statement read. "He has [also] agreed to support Neil to enable an effective handover and transition."

Watkins joined Acer in 2005 to head up its consumer division, before being handed the role of UK general manager in 2008.

He was promoted to group managing director for the UK and also took on a regional directorship covering the Belelux region at the start of this year.

Watkins' departure rounds off a turbulent year for Acer, after the company was forced to write off $150m (£94m) of excess stock in June, resulting in it losing the EMEA PC market top spot to rival HP earlier this month.

His replacement joined Acer from rival PC firm Compaq in 2002, where he was responsible for directing the company's channel strategy and development in EMEA.

Acer said: "Neil has been in the IT industry for 20 years, joined Acer in 2002 and has most recently been working on a task force to introduce the Acer channel model in China."