Arrow ECS: Two Presidents, Different Roles

Morris was named acting president of Arrow ECS when Ed Coleman resigned in September. She will be joined in the Office of the President by Kevin Gilroy, who on Monday Arrow said was hired as an Arrow ECS president from OnForce, where he was CEO.

The executives will have different responsibilities, Morris said. Gilroy will be the "face to resellers and vendors" responsible for external relationships, including the sales organization. Morris said she will focus on more internal matters, including the integration of recent acquisitions Alternative Technology, Englewood, Colo., and InTechnology Distribution, Harrowgate, England, as well as other infrastructure and operational policies.

There won't be any competition between the two executives, and Arrow isn't looking to see which person might emerge as more successful, Morris said.

"There is no bakeoff. We have unique skills that combined provide, in our opinion, the best leadership team in the industry. We will maximize both [sets of skills] to lead the company together," Morris said. "We'll both be responsible for overall strategy and performance and people development."

Gilroy could not be reached for comment.

Dave Butler, president and CEO of Enterprise Computing Solutions, a Mission Viejo, Calif.,-based solution provider, said Gilroy's addition and experience as a Hewlett-Packard channel executive should bring more stability to Arrow's distribution business.

"Kevin comes in with a unique understanding of HP and the channel. When he was at HP, he was kind of guy that would listen to resellers," Butler said. "He did not have a problem carrying the message up the food chain [at HP]. I think he accomplished that better than anyone."

Butler said he only met Coleman once when he was president of Arrow ECS, and Coleman was gone before he had much impact.

"Kevin's biggest contribution is he was a strong advocate for the channel. He carried the flag at HP to support business to channel partners. HP's channel program is viewed very positively now, and Kevin is at the foundation of what is in place today," Butler said. "I expect the same tenacity out of him. I'm very hopeful he'll be a great advocate again."

Morris said she has known Gilroy for several years, working with him when he was at HP. "I was always impressed with his command of the channel. It's a fantastic addition to our group. It makes a lot of sense. The great thing for us is you have two senior channel executives with great complementary skills," she said.

Morris' experience with Arrow has been primarily behind the scenes. She helped integrate previous acquisitions such as SBM (now the HP Group), Support Net (now the IBM Group) and MOCA (the Sun Microsystems-focused group), as well as the sale of the broadline unit Gates/Arrow to Synnex.

She added that Alternative Technology and InTechnology in the U.K. are important acquisitions for Arrow.

"They're both a little different than our core business, and they were strategically picked because of the solution-selling aspect of the business. My role is to integrate those acquisitions into Arrow ECS and maximize our investment in those companies," Morris said. "It may seem a short-term [job] to get them up and running and converted to Arrow, but it's part of a bigger picture evolution for Arrow ECS. They have very focused core competencies. We want to leverage them across all our Arrow businesses within ECS. And we're certainly always looking for what the next strategic play would be."