Ingram CEO Change: Planned Back In October 2011?

Alain_Monie_Ingram Micro CEO

Monie originally joined Ingram Micro as executive VP in 2003 and then shifted to president of the Asia-Pacific region in 2004 before leaping to the president and COO post in 2007. After a tour of duty away from Ingram, Monie returned to the IT distributor in November 2011 as president and COO. His pending return was announced in October 2011.

Companies such as IBM and Google publicly announced CEO transition plans in 2011 — months before the CEO crowns actually landed on new heads. In Ingram Micro’s case, the company kept the CEO transition quiet until the day before it became official.

Solid Performance

Monie inherits a healthy technology business from Spierkel. Ingram says its Q4 results for 2011 will beat analyst expectations — though actual results will surface February 9, 2012. In a prepared statement, Spierkel today said the time was right to exit and spend more time with his family.

Spierkel was a high-profile executive at Ingram channel partner gatherings. In this 2010 FastChat with The VAR Guy, Spierkel asserted the IT recovery was real rather than an imagined uptick, and he described how Ingram would capitalize on the recovery:

Ingram Micro Cloud

Still, Ingram’s core hardware distribution and software resale businesses are under attack from cloud computing. To address that reality, Spierkel green lighted the Ingram Micro Cloud effort — an aspiring cloud aggregation portal that allows VARs and MSPs to source multiple third-party cloud services.

Now, Monie will oversee Ingram’s on-premises and cloud business initiatives. In an interesting cloud twist, Monie has been a member of Amazon.com’s board of directors since November 2008 — a potential boost to the ongoing Ingram Micro Cloud-Amazon business relationship.

In an SEC filing, Ingram said Monie will receive an annual base salary of $850,000, with an annual incentive bonus target of 150 percent his annual base salary. He has the opportunity to push that bonus to 220 percent if Ingram hits certain above-target goals, the SEC filing said.

Meanwhile, Spierkel remains with Ingram until April 15, 2012, to assist with the transition. He’ll resigned from the company’s board at that time.