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The changes did not amount to a wholesale replacement of Dell’s corporate leadership. They primarily reorganized regional sales, Dell Technologies Select sales, and channel operations. John Byrne gained global regional-sales responsibility, Diego Majdalani took charge of channel-sales execution, Rola Dagher retained responsibility for channel strategy and partner programs, and Pete Trizzino moved into North American sales.
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What Dell announced in February 2023
The announcement involved two related but distinct actions:
- A workforce reduction: Dell planned to reduce its global workforce by approximately 5%.
- A sales and channel reorganization: Several senior executives received broader or different responsibilities across regional sales and partner operations.
These developments were announced in the same post-layoff context, but the available reporting does not establish that every executive change was directly caused by the job cuts. Nor did it identify the executives as departing Dell.
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The original announcement was reported on February 6, 2023, not in 2026. Readers should therefore treat the executive assignments below as a historical snapshot of Dell’s 2023 organization.
How many jobs did Dell cut?
Dell said it planned to eliminate approximately 5% of its workforce. With about 133,000 employees at the time, that equates to approximately 6,650 jobs.
That figure is an estimate derived from the reported workforce size and percentage reduction, not a claim that Dell publicly identified exactly 6,650 individual employees. Dell did not provide a complete public breakdown by job function, location, or business unit.
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The cuts followed other cost-control measures, including hiring pauses, travel restrictions, and expense reductions. The broader technology industry was also responding to weaker demand, while PC shipments had fallen sharply during the period. CRN reported that sales roles were among those affected, although the available reporting does not provide a comprehensive role-by-role accounting.
Why was Dell restructuring?
The immediate business pressure was a slowdown in PC demand and a wider technology-sector downturn. Dell’s public rationale emphasized efficiency and the organization’s long-term health.
That explanation supports a connection between the layoffs and cost reduction. It does not prove that the sales reorganization was solely a response to weaker PC sales. The changes also addressed how Dell managed global sales coverage, regional accountability, channel execution, and partner programs.
In practical terms, Dell was attempting to operate with a smaller workforce while consolidating responsibility across parts of its sales organization. That creates a familiar trade-off: reducing costs can improve efficiency, but cuts affecting sales, account management, or support can also put pressure on customer coverage and partner relationships.
The executive moves, explained
| Executive | 2023 role before the change | New or continuing responsibility |
|---|---|---|
| John Byrne | President of North American sales | Global responsibility for regional sales and Dell Technologies Select sales |
| Diego Majdalani | International channel sales leadership | Global channel-sales execution |
| Rola Dagher | Global channel chief | Continued leading channel strategy and partner programs |
| Pete Trizzino | Leader of Dell Technologies Select sales | North American sales |
John Byrne took global regional-sales responsibility
Byrne moved from leading North American sales to overseeing Dell’s regional sales organizations globally. The remit covered North America, Europe, the Middle East and Africa, Latin America, Asia-Pacific and Japan, Greater China, and Dell Technologies Select sales.
In the 2023 structure, Byrne continued reporting to Bill Scannell, who was Dell’s global sales leader at the time. Consolidating regional and Select sales under one executive could simplify accountability and encourage more consistent execution across markets. It could also reduce regional autonomy or make coordination more demanding as one leader’s scope expanded.
Diego Majdalani took responsibility for channel execution
Majdalani became responsible for global sales execution through the channel. Before the change, he had led international channel sales across regions including Asia-Pacific and Japan, Europe, the Middle East and Africa, Greater China, and Latin America.
This was not the same as taking over Dell’s entire channel organization. The announcement distinguished between channel strategy and partner programs and channel-sales execution:
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Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteDriver Scan →Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsFree Scan →Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitchesFind Drivers →- Execution: Majdalani was responsible for carrying out sales activity through Dell’s channel globally.
- Strategy and programs: Dagher remained global channel chief, focusing on partner programs, channel strategy, new market opportunities, modernization of the core business, collaboration, and streamlining the partner experience.
That separation could make ownership clearer, particularly for partners trying to understand who manages programs and who manages field execution. It could also create coordination risks if partner incentives, program rules, and regional sales activity were not aligned.
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Rola Dagher remained Dell’s global channel chief
Dagher did not leave the role described in the announcement. She continued focusing on Dell’s channel strategy and partner programs while Majdalani took responsibility for global execution.
The distinction matters because a summary that simply describes the change as a “channel leadership shake-up” misses the operating model Dell was presenting. The company was dividing strategic and program ownership from day-to-day sales execution, rather than replacing Dagher with Majdalani.
Pete Trizzino moved into North American sales
Trizzino moved from leading Dell Technologies Select sales to leading the North American sales team. He reported to Byrne.
The simplified reporting relationship described in the 2023 announcement was:
Bill Scannell
└── John Byrne — global regional and Dell Technologies Select sales
└── Pete Trizzino — North American salesThis is not a complete Dell organizational chart. It illustrates how North American sales fit into the revised chain of responsibility.
What the changes meant for customers and channel partners
The announcement described an intended operating model, not measured results. There is no basis in the supplied reporting to claim that partners received better service, generated more revenue, or experienced fewer escalations as a result.
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- Author: Bungay Stanier, Michael.
- Publisher: Page Two
- Pages: 244
- Publication Date: 2016-02-29
- Edition: 1
Still, the structure points to several issues that customers and partners would reasonably monitor:
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A free scan shows the junk files, broken settings and background clutter dragging Windows down - then fixes them in one click.Free scan · Windows 10 & 11- Regional ownership: Byrne’s broader remit placed regional sales coverage under a more centralized global structure.
- Channel execution: Majdalani became the senior point of responsibility for carrying out global channel sales activity.
- Partner programs: Dagher remained responsible for strategy and programs, including the partner experience.
- North American escalation: Trizzino became the leader of North American sales under Byrne.
- Coverage during a workforce reduction: Customers and partners could face changes in account coverage, contacts, incentives, or escalation routes as teams were reorganized.
For a channel partner, the most important practical question was not simply which executive held which title. It was whether the new division between programs and execution produced a clear path for resolving issues and obtaining consistent answers across regions.
What the layoffs did—and did not—show
The layoffs showed that Dell was pursuing a substantial cost and workforce reduction during a period of weaker PC demand. They did not, by themselves, prove that Dell was abandoning enterprise infrastructure, channel sales, or regional operations.
Similarly, the executive changes should not be described as a broad C-suite turnover. The named changes centered on sales and channel responsibilities. They also should not be presented as executive departures: the reporting described changed assignments, not the executives leaving Dell.
The central tension was between short-term efficiency and long-term sales capacity. A smaller organization may have fewer layers and clearer accountability, but it may also have fewer resources for customer coverage, partner support, and market development.
How this fits into Dell’s later leadership timeline
Dell’s leadership structure continued to evolve after the 2023 reorganization. That later history should not be mixed into the original announcement.
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Yvonne McGill stepped down as chief financial officer effective September 9, 2025. Dell appointed David Kennedy as interim CFO and later made him permanent CFO effective November 24, 2025. Dell’s 2026 proxy identifies Michael Dell as chairman and CEO, Jeffrey Clarke as vice chairman and COO, Richard Rothberg as general counsel, David Kennedy as CFO, and William Scannell as president and chief customer officer for fiscal 2027.
Those later titles demonstrate why a historical article should preserve the timeline. Scannell’s later title, for example, should not be used to rewrite the title or reporting structure he held in the February 2023 announcement.
Sources for the later timeline include Dell’s CFO transition announcement and its 2026 proxy statement.
The bottom line
Dell’s 2023 response was more than a headcount reduction. The company planned to cut approximately 5% of its workforce—about 6,650 positions based on the reported workforce size—while reorganizing sales and channel leadership.
The key structural changes were the consolidation of global regional and Select sales responsibility under John Byrne, the transfer of global channel-sales execution to Diego Majdalani, the continuation of Rola Dagher’s channel-strategy and partner-program role, and Pete Trizzino’s move into North American sales.
The announcement established the new responsibilities, but it did not establish that the reorganization improved business or partner outcomes. Those results require separate evidence.
