Ingram Micro has appointed regional channel chief Mark Snider and finance head Charlie Spano to lead the Canadian division, reaffirming the distributor’s North American strategy.Mark Snider, the new general manager, partner development, called his promotion a logical progression of the North American model, first instituted at Ingram Micro by Kevin Murai back in 2001.
“Charlie (Spano) and I have the experience with the customers and at the back end. We have the relationships with the U.S. and with the team here in Canada. It was an easy decision for Keith (Bradley, president, Ingram Micro North America) to make,” Snider said.
For Spano, who joined Ingram Micro in 1995 and is now accountable for Canada’s finance, operations, IT, and human resources departments, his promotion to the co-shared top spot was just a confirmation of the process that was already in place, he said.
Spano added that most of the decisions at Ingram Micro Canada were made collectively made by himself, Snidar and Martin Kalsbeek, the outgoing president.
“We worked together a lot with Martin on several projects and it was a natural progression,” Spano said.
Both Snider and Spano believe that the two of them together will speed up the decision making process at the distributor.
“Charlie and I will be keeping all of our current responsibilities and with that we believe we will be much closer to the customers and vendor partners and on the support side of the business. This puts us one step closer and helps in the speed of execution,” Snider said.
Promoting Snider and Spano to the top spot was not a case of Bradley being unable to make up his mind on one of them, Snider said.
Kalsbeek also contributed to the decision to move both Snider and Spano to the leadership role, he added.
Spano and Snider also said that this move was not an indication that Bradley would be more involved in the Canadian operation.
Snider, who will now be responsible for sales, vendor management and marketing, will continue to report into Brian Wiser, Ingram Micro North America’s senior vice-president of sales and vendor management. Snider said that Wiser has always been tuned-in to what is happening in the Canadian market.
Spano, however, will continue to report to Lisa Locklear, vice-president, financial planning and analysis, Ingram Micro North America, and liaises directly with Ingram Micro North America’s senior vice president and CFO Ross Crane.
While both admitted it is still early in the new structure they do have a collective direction for Ingram Micro Canada.
“It is still in development, but between Charlie and I the Ingram Micro goal is to continue to provide exceptional customer experience and help resellers grow and be profitable. In our own business we want to enable the partnerships from the vendors through the resellers to help the customers. We do not want to say no to any customer,” Snider said.