I have to say I was a little surprised to find out that Ingram Micro has been in business for 30 years.
Ingram is one of the leaders in distribution around the world and itseemed to me that they have been conducting business for many moreyears than just 30.
Here is how they got started. The husband and wife team of Geza Czige and Lorraine Mecca, both school teachers, founded Micro D in 1979. Business was going well for them for about a decade and then Martha Ingram ofIngram Industries acquired Micro D. The merger resulted in thedistributor being called Ingram Micro D. When I entered the industrythey were still using the “D”.
Now in all places Buffalo, N.Y. circa 1982 Ronald Scheiber, Irwin Schreiber (no relation to Karlheinz Schreiber in case you were wondering) along with Gerald Lippes and Paul Willax started up Software Distribution Services. Three years late this company was acquired by Ingram.
Together they formed the first billion dollar computer productsdistribution company in the world. Ingram dropped the “D” in 1991.
Today they are a force to be reckoned with. Company CEO Greg Spierkel saidthat they company has come a long way since its modest beginning in1979. Over the past 30 years, we’ve experienced all the differenteconomic cycles and today still remain strong, profitable and able togrow channel and vendor business.
To give you a sense of how massive Ingram is take a look at thesefigures. The distributor is in about 150 countries and is the only ITdistributor with operations all over Asia. Ingram’s channel network ismore than 170,000 strong. Ingram has more than 1,500 vendor partners.That is pretty sizable and to think it was done in a short time of 30years is astonishing.
The company is celebrating in Canada where it has offices in Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver along with many other locations. CDN also congratulates Ingram on an amazing 30 years.
One quick hit before I go. Microsoft Canada’s partner team will include an executive who’s mandate will be channel strategy. This is a similar set up as Cisco where Edison Peres handles strategy and Keith Goodwin takes care of sales. Corinne Sharp willdrive the sales area for Microsoft Canada’s channel and CDN has learnedthat Microsoft has narrowed down its list of candidates to a fewindividuals. Of course check back here for more details.
