Gregory Spierkel represents the changing nature of the world’s biggest technology products distributor, Ingram Micro Inc.

Next month, the Canadian-born executive, who has overseen the company’s growing Asian and European operations, is set to take over as chief executive.

Spierkel will be taking the reins from Kent Foster, a retired Air Force captain who has served as Ingram’s chief executive for the past five years. The two are a study in contrasts: Foster once said he didn’t see how people run a company “without being in the military.”

Counters Spierkel: “I don’t have military service, but I have broad international experience.”

In many ways, Spierkel is taking over a different company than the one Foster ran. In the past few years, Santa Ana-based Ingram saw massive cost cutting and restructuring after the technology downturn that started in 2000.

“Like the rest of the tech industry, we got caught in a major slowdown and there was a lot of restructuring,” Spierkel said.

Foster’s task was to realign Ingram with the industry’s new reality after the boom of the late 1990s.

What Spierkel inherits is a leaner company that’s growing again. Citing increased sales in Europe and Asia, Ingram last week reported first-quarter net income of $42.5 million, compared with $37.6 million for the like period a year earlier. Sales rose 12 percent, to $7.05 billion.

Better times have brought renewed competition. In March, the head of rival Tech Data Corp. of Florida said he’s seeing a price war as distributors look to gain market share. “Each and every order is pretty hotly contested,” Steve Raymund, Tech Data’s chief executive, told trade publication Computer Reseller News.

Competition isn’t new for Ingram. But even the slightest slip in prices means a hit to profits, which already are razor-thin for tech distributors.

‘Right-size the company’


Earlier this month, Ingram said it plans to cut 550 North American jobs, about half in Santa Ana. The goal of the move is to save the company about $25 million a year by 2006. Ingram plans to outsource the work abroad by the end of the year.

“Of course, we’ll always move to right-size the company,” Spierkel said. “But I believe it’s going to get better.”

Ingram ships products for computer and other electronics makers to resellers and stores worldwide. The company handles products for just about every major supplier Microsoft Corp., Hewlett-Packard Co., IBM Corp., Intel Corp., among others.

On the other side of its business, Ingram distributes products to CompUSA Inc., Amazon.com Inc., Office Depot Inc. and scores of other sellers of tech gear.

Spierkel said he’s been working in technology “since I left university.” A native of Montreal, Spierkel got his start at Bell Canada on one of the first e-mail systems in 1979. He went on to work for Ontario’s Mitel Networks Corp. for 11 years before coming to Ingram.

Spierkel joined the company eight years ago as president of the Asia-Pacific business. He moved from there to Ingram’s Europe operation in 1999.

In Spierkel’s time abroad, he’s played a key role getting Ingram to go after acquisitions, including last year’s $530 million acquisition of Australia’s Tech Pacific Ltd. The deal was the company’s largest yet and marks a stepped up push in Asia. He also played a role in Ingram’s 1997 buy of Singapore’s Electronic Resources Ltd.

Some of the programs that Spierkel’s spearheaded for Ingram in Europe and Asia could make their way here, according to an interview he did with Computer Reseller News. Those include more products and services in telecommunications, consumer electronics and point of sales systems for retailers.

Ingram could swap “best practices” between its Europe and Asian arms and its North American base. “There’s some things we’ve done well with regard to how we manage our vendor relations abroad,” he said.

Spierkel has spent the better part of his life abroad, working in Hong Kong, Belgium, Britain and Singapore. Like Foster, Spierkel worked in telecommunications at Mitel. Earlier in his career, Foster helped turn around GTE, now part of Verizon Communications Inc.

But Spierkel said his time in Europe and Asia gave him “a deeper understanding of the business than Kent had when he started.” “I would call myself more of a hands-on operator,” he said.

Spierkel’s experience helped him beat out competition. He and Kevin Murai were named co-presidents a year ago with the expectation one of them likely would be the next chief executive when Foster retired.

The move surprised Ingram watchers, who had expected former chief operating officer Michael Grainger to replace Foster.