Arrow Hires Channel Veteran Gilroy

Gilroy, a longtime channel executive at Hewlett-Packard and most recently CEO of OnForce, joins the Melville, N.Y.-based distributor on Jan. 2, 2007.

He will have the same title at Arrow as Catherine Morris, who has been serving as acting president of Arrow ECS since September, when Ed Coleman resigned.

Both Gilroy and Morris also have been appointed to the Office of the President, according to Arrow. The company did not detail how their responsibilities would be divided. The pair will be "focusing their efforts on complementary aspects of the position," according to a statement from the company. Arrow executives could not be reached for immediate comment.

"Our ECS business is a critical part of Arrow's strategy as we move forward, and I am pleased to have two talented and experienced executives in our ECS Office of the President," said William Mitchell, chairman, president and CEO of Arrow Electronics, in a statement. "I am confident that Kevin and Cathy will collaboratively work to lead our ECS business to the next level of worldwide success for the benefit of our customers, vendors and resellers."

Gilroy announced in October that he would step down as CEO of OnForce, an online marketplace for technology services, effective Jan. 1, 2007.

At the time, he said he wanted to stay closer to his family and Philadelphia home.

"They need me and I need them," Gilroy told CRN in October. "Life is going fast, so I'm looking forward to going to their ball games, teacher conferences, helping them with their homework and playing hoops in our driveway. I'm working too many hours, and I live in a different city than my family."

Gilroy joined OnForce as a consultant in November 2005 and was named CEO in June 2006. Prior to that, he was a familiar face at channel trade shows with Hewlett-Packard, where he worked for 24 years.

He added at that time that he was seeking a new channel assignment that doesn't interfere with his family. "Being CEO of a company like OnForce in the emerging startup phase is an 80-hour-a-week, seven-days-a-week job. It really came down to two loves: being the CEO of OnForce and my family. My life is a little upside down right now. So I'm going to get it straightened out and go home."

Gilroy will be based out of Arrow's Melville headquarters, according to a release by the company.

Morris has been a senior member of the Arrow ECS team for more than three years and has responsibilities for finance, operations, logistics, marketing and business development and IT. She is based in Englewood, Colo.