Dell today announced the appointment of John Swainson to serve as President, Software Group, effective March 5, 2012. Mr. Swainson will report to Michael Dell, chairman and CEO of Dell.

The Software Group will build on Dell's software capabilities and provide greater innovation and organizational support to create a more competitive position in delivering end-to-end IT solutions to customers. The organization will add to Dell's enterprise solutions capability, accelerate profitable growth and further differentiate the company from competitors by increasing its solutions portfolio with Dell-owned intellectual property.

"John is an outstanding leader with an unparalleled record of achievement," said Mr. Dell. "He brings to Dell extensive experience in leading and growing software businesses, unique expertise in managing complex software organizations, and a passion for listening to and serving customers. I look forward to working with John as he expands our enterprise solutions and builds on our software capabilities."

"This is an exciting time to join Dell," said Mr. Swainson. "As a leading IT solutions provider, Dell brings key assets and advantages to the software sector, including a strong global brand, a diverse global customer base and customer loyalty that creates opportunities to expand relationships with software."

The Software Group will bolster Dell's ability to execute in several strategic areas critical to its customers. The combination of strong internal development capabilities in hardware, software and services gives Dell the ability to serve the largest possible group of customers within the $3 trillion technology industry.

"The addition of software, both within the Software Group and across all of Dell, will help catalyze our transformation," Mr. Dell said. "As software will be a part of all of our products and services, the group's success will be largely be measured by the success of Dell overall."

Most recently, Mr. Swainson was senior advisor to Silver Lake, a global private equity firm. Prior to Silver Lake, he was CEO and director of CA, Inc. from early 2005 through 2009. Under his leadership at CA, the company significantly increased customer satisfaction, its operating margins, and revenue.

Prior to CA, John worked for IBM for more than 26 years, holding various management positions in the U.S. and Canada, including seven years as general manager of the Application Integration Middleware Division, a business he founded in 1997. During that period, he and his team developed the WebSphere family of middleware products and the Eclipse open source tools project. He also led the IBM worldwide software sales organization and held numerous senior leadership roles in engineering, marketing and sales management.

Mr. Swainson holds a bachelor's degree in engineering from the University of British Columbia, Canada.