Lanci Gianfranco (Gianfranco Lanci)

Lanci Gianfranco (Gianfranco Lanci)

Biography

Gianfranco Lanci was born in 1954 in Turin (Italy), graduated from the Turin Polytechnic Institute with a diploma in civil engineering.

In 1981, he began his career at Texas Instruments in Italy.

In 1991, he moved to the position of Regional Head of Portable Computers and Printers (PPD) in Italy, the Middle East and Africa.

In 1996, Gianfranco was appointed President of Texas Instruments Personal Use Products in EMEA.

After the merger of Texas Instruments' laptop division with Acer in 1997, Gianfranco Lanci took over as Managing Director of Acer in Italy.

In 2000, Gianfranco took over as president of Acer in Europe and began working to create a solid European structure.

As President of Acer EMEA in 2002, Lanci introduced his distribution channel business model in the Middle East and Africa.

In 2003, he was appointed President of Acer OBG (International Trade Operations Group) and began coordinating marketing and sales activities in Europe, the Middle East, Africa and the Americas.

2005 - Lanci becomes president of Acer.

Since 2008, he has served as President and CEO of Acer.

2011: High-profile departure from Acer and move to Lenovo

On March 31, 2011, Lanci resigned as president of Acer. The reason for the resignation was disagreements with other members of the board about the further course of development of the company. The decision was made on March 31, at a meeting of the board of directors and entered into force immediately. The interim duties of the Lanci were assumed by the chairman of the board of JT J.T. Wang. Lanci had disagreements with most of Acer's board members over the company's continued development, the official release said. At the same time, after several months of discussions, the parties could not come to a compromise. In particular, disagreements arose regarding the scale of the business, the pace of development, the consumer value of goods, brand positioning and resource management.

According to industry sources among laptop manufacturers cited by the DigiTimes website, the real reason for the departure was that Acer was unable to withstand fierce competition from Apple. By the way, it was on this occasion that the ex-head of Nokia, Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, and the former head of LG Electronics, Nam Yong, resigned.

According to market participants, the emergence of the iPad tablet in 2010 had a significant impact on the netbook market, which was confused with the entry-level letpop segment. As a result, Acer did not see any growth and in November 2010 introduced its own tablet PC.

As for the other front of opposition of Apple - the smartphone market, here Acer is significantly inferior to its opponent, as well as to other players. As a result, Gianfranco Lanci was forced to leave the post.

In September 2011, J. Lianchi (Gianfranco Lanci) received a position in the Chinese Lenovo. He is a consultant responsible for strengthening Lenovo's presence in European markets, which is especially important due to the purchase of Lenovo in July by the German company Medion AG.

2012: Lawsuit from Acer

In early 2012, Acer filed a lawsuit in an Italian court against the former CEO and president of the company, Gianfranco Lanci. At this time, Lanci works as a consultant on European affairs at Lenovo, and Acer accuses him of violating the terms of the contract regarding the prohibition of work on competitors.

Lanci took over as head of Lenovo in the EMEA region, and later took over as president and chief operating officer. He left Lenovo in September 2021.

2022: Running your own wineries

In the last years of his life, Lanci was busy with winemaking. He owned a group of wineries and 80 hectares of vineyards in the territories of Montferrato and Lange in Italy. They produced an average of 700,000 bottles a year, according to the Hardware Upgrade website.

2023: Death after surgery

In January 2023, Gianfranco Lanci died after complications during back surgery. This was reported by CRN with reference to Italian news resources. Lanci was 68 years old.

Hobby

Books, tennis.