Ingram Micro Appoints Ex-3M Exec to CIO Post

Distributor Ingram Micro (IM) has named Ernest Park, a former 3M executive, as its new chief information officer (CIO), replacing Mario Leone, who left the company earlier this year. Park will assume his new role as of Dec. 2, reporting to Ingram chief executive Alain Monié.

Park, who brings 30 years of IT and shared services experience to his new post, is tasked with overseeing Ingram’s information and business systems, including managing an IT organization whose reach extends worldwide and executes what the distributor termed “hundreds of thousands of transactions per day.”

According to Ingram, Park’s experience spans a variety of industries, including IT, distribution, retail and diversified manufacturing with special focus on creating business value, driving best practices, process re-engineering, supply chain management, six sigma, shared service implementation, e-business initiatives, managed services, outsourcing and offshoring.

Immediately prior to taking the Ingram job, Park served as CIO and vice president at 3M beginning in 2008, where he lead the corporatewide information technology organizations supporting operations in 72 countries and 85,000 employees.

Park’s CIO background also includes jobs outside IT, with a two-year stint at Select Comfort and a six-year tenure at Maytag. He also commands CIO experience at AlliedSignal and Honeywell. Early in his career, Park had a 16-year run at Ingram rival Avnet (AVT), which he concluded in 1996 as Technology Services corporate vice president.

“Ernie has an excellent track record in transforming business performance for multinational organizations through technology and efficiency,” said Monié. “His extensive background in IT strategy and his years of successful leadership will help ensure the continuity and successful implementation of the objectives we have put in place to drive productivity across our core distribution business while further executing on our strategic initiatives in faster growing and higher margin businesses.”

Nimesh Dave, who served as interim CIO, has handed off those duties to Park and will now return full time to his role overseeing Ingram’s global business process and cloud computing.

In late September, Ingram named Paul Read, a former Flextronics top executive, as its new president and chief operating officer (COO), while Bill Humes, who served in the dual role of Ingram’s COO and chief financial officer (CFO) since April 2012, relinquished his operational duties but retained his responsibility for the company’s global finance organization, adding global shared services centers and strategic sourcing operations to his to-do list.