Lenovo Group has poached its fourth Dell executive and will tap him to lead a new business unit that will address customer service.

Christopher J. Askew, 44, was appointed senior vice president of the new Lenovo Services unit on Aug. 24, the company said in a statement. He will be based in Singapore and report directly to CEO William J. Amelio.

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Lenovo, the world's third-largest computer maker, based in Purchase, N.Y., has hired a number of executives away from Dell in the past year.

Before he was appointed CEO on Dec. 21, 2005, Amelio worked for Dell in its Asian division. More recently, on Aug. 17, 2006, Lenovo announced that it had hired two other Dell executives to lead different units in its Asia Pacific and Japan divisions.

Askew worked for Dell since 1999 and was vice president of Dell Services, Asia-Pacific and Japan, before leaving for his new position at Lenovo.

Click here to read more about Lenovo's restructuring plan.

Before Dell, Askew worked for Compaq Computers and Tandem Computers. He began his career at the Bank of England, where he held a number of technical and operations and management positions.

Askew's background in marketing, channel sales and service were expected to help with Lenovo's new customer service division, according to the statement.

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