Distribution Watch: GTDC, Ingram Micro, Avnet

Thanks for celebrating Friday with us, Distribution Watchers! This week we’ve got hot new stories from the Global Technology Distribution Council (GTDC), Ingram Micro (IM) and Avnet (AVT). Let’s get started.

GTDC: The Global Technology Distribution Council has appointed SiS International chairman and CEO K.H. Lim to its executive committee. Lim, who co-founded SiS in 1983, is the first ever Asia-based distribution executive elected to the GTDC executive committee.

“SiS International has been a valuable member of the GTDC since 2002 and K.H. Lim’s leadership, experience and knowledge on strategic marketing and channel distribution has helped the company transform into one of the leading distributors in the Asia-Pacific region,” said Tim Curran, CEO of the GTDC, in a statement.

In his new role, Lim will help the executive committee to set organizational policies and lead the strategic direction of the GTDC.

“It is an honor to join the executive committee of the GTDC. This is a great opportunity to bring more strategic focus to the Asian region and I’m happy to add my leadership and knowledge to an already successful committee,” Lim said. “It’s an exciting time in distribution with the influx of mobility and other high-growth technologies, and I have no doubt that we as a council will achieve even greater success in 2015.”

Ingram Micro: The Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) has elected Tom Bamrick, general manager for Ingram Micro Consumer Electronics, to its 2015 Board of Industry Leaders (BIL). In his new role, Bamrick will work with the BIL in an advisory role and help to set public policy positions and priorities for association activities, according to the press release. Bamrick is one of 15 new members to be elected to the BIL and Executive Board this year.

Bamrick is a 20-year veteran of Ingram Micro and has led several company initiatives in addition to developing strategic relationships with partners, according to the company. He is responsible for leading the day-to-day operations for Ingram’s Consumer Electronics division and oversees several teams located in the United States and the Philippines.

"It's a privilege to be joining my industry peers from so many great organizations and serving on the board of an organization that has such a well-respected voice and is valued as an educational resource for the CE industry," said Bamrick. "During my 20 years at Ingram Micro, I've been fortunate to play a role in the evolution and convergence of the IT and CE channels, and have seen much of the industry's innovation and value firsthand. I'm looking forward to working collaboratively with the other BIL members to help shape the future of the CE landscape."

Avnet: The Phoenix-based distributor announced the grand opening of the CenterPoint Value-Added Services Center, the company’s new IT services facility in Columbus, Ohio. The center, Avnet’s largest IT services facility to date, spans 580,000 square feet and houses all of the distributor’s lifecycle services in a single location.

“Lifecycle services present a terrific opportunity for our customers to grow their businesses because they maximize the potential of IT by creating complete end-to-end business solutions,” said Mike Hurst, senior vice president of Avnet Services. “By developing a facility to house all of our lifecycle services under one roof, we’ve created a collaborative services environment that will help our customers reduce complexity, decrease costs and time to market, enhance their offerings, expand into markets and improve customer satisfaction.

Thanks for stopping by, and we wish you a very happy, healthy and relaxing weekend. Stay classy, folks, and we’ll see you next week.