Outgoing Ingram UK chief: It will be hard to let go
Brent McCarty is heading back to the US to lead Ingram's global sales initiative
Ingram's UK and Ireland country chief executive Brent McCarty is handing back the reins to his predecessor Matt Sanderson as he takes on a new role spearheading the firm's global sales initiative.
Sanderson left the UK role in 2012 to take on a vice president position in the firm's Australian business, but is now returning to the UK.
McCarty, who took the UK hotseat in 2013, and had previously worked as a general manager of the distributor's consumer electronics unit in the US, has overseen several major developments at the distribution giant over the past three years - including its move to a new office, its growth in the cloud and continued SMB investments.
McCarty told CRN that he would be sad to leave the UK, but confirmed he would start his new role on 1 July, based in California.
"It is really hard to let go as we have worked so hard to invest and build the business here," he said. "I feel we have accomplished so much in the last three years, particularly with getting Comms-care on board. I am particularly pleased I was able to get this deal [Comms-care] closed. I'm sad I'm not going to have the opportunity to help integrate it into the business, but I know Matt will do a great job."
He explained that his new role is a great opportunity to build on Ingram's global presence and help resellers expand geographically.
"We have many customers and vendors in mature markets, either diversifying or looking to diversify. I am going to be building a team to help leverage our global scale and enable our customers to work in other countries.
"We are going to be investing in resources across the globe and help our customers with organic expansion. Many of our customers' end users need global deployments, but they struggle to help them do that. We aim to help them do this by deploying standardised solutions through that one partner for those end users that have a global presence. Vendors struggle with the same thing and we know it is a big opportunity for us. I am going to be expanding the existing [global sales] team across all regions."
He said the new role meant he would still be in touch with UK partners, given that the UK is a mature market, and many could make use of Ingram's support when moving into new geographies.
When asked what he had enjoyed about the UK, McCarty said: "From a business perspective I have been given the flexibility to do the things that needed to be done, both in terms of team structure and building a stronger foundation. There have been so many things we have done to change the business, including an office move and bringing our four business units together, and of course the Comms-care acquisition. It is a pretty strong track record and I'm pretty happy with that.
"The people in the UK channel have made it such an incredible experience - everybody has been very welcoming and embraced what I've been trying to do and also embraced me personally, which has made it a phenomenal experience."
Gerhard Schulz, global group president at Ingram, said: "We congratulate both Matt and Brent in their new roles and look forward to the continued development of Ingram Micro UK under Matt's leadership. We cannot thank Brent enough for his commitment and believe his prior experience has fully prepared him to head up our global sales initiative."