Don't quote me...but speculation has always been that he was let go from that prior position as well. Which to your point doesn't make sense since they brought him over to Greer, but regardless he either left or was let go from his prior position.
More likely then, he left the prior position on his own and was enticed to be brought back to work with this group at Greer I guess. Guess that's why it's called speculation, right? Either way, seems part scape-goat part not getting the job done at Greer.
Doesn't make much sense to me and certainly looks like a behind the scenes issue went down. The so-called "strategy" that has thus far been ineffective doesn't really link up to RP's role which says the company's lack of ability to hit it's goals at this time probably was not much of a factor. We will probably never know for sure and it doesn't seem it is a role that is being backfilled which only leads to more speculation.