Avnet Names New Head Of Technology Solutions Group

Avnet has named Jeff Bawol president of Avnet Technology Solutions, Americas, effective immediately. Bawol, previously vice president in charge of the distributor's Enterprise Software and Storage Solutions group, has been with Phoenix-based Avnet for 29 years. He replaces Fred Cuen, who left the position in a "mutually agreed upon" decision last week, according to Avnet.

Bawol now has responsibility to re-energize Avnet Technology Solutions' Americas business that has experienced slower growth rates compared to EMEA and Asia. Sales for the Americas increased 2.9 percent in the third fiscal quarter, compared to increases of 21.4 percent and 32.4 percent on a pro forma basis in EMEA and Asia, respectively.

Last month, Avnet CEO Roy Vallee noted that Avnet Technology Solutions had "much lower-than-expected revenues in one large business unit, lackluster sales in some other key products and lower gross margins due primarily to rebate issues."

Jeff Bawol

Bawol's software and storage group has been growing ahead of other parts of the organization, according to the company. The business unit's revenue has a compounded annual growth rate of 42 percent over the last three years.

Bawol said part of his success in that group has been an evolution towards solutions selling and "enabling partners," concepts he hopes to bring across Avnet's entire product portfolio now.

"Virtualization, storage enablement, VoIP, networking. It's nothing revolutionary, but that's where we're putting a lot of focus," Bawol said. "In the storage/software business, we were starting to move toward integration with the Intel server part of business. It's an interesting thing and we'll now accelerate that thinking."

Avnet also will look to wrap more sales and technical training around solutions, and help bring more vendors together, he said.

"The VARs have done a really good job adding their services, their expertise as we moved these products together," he said. "From a marketing perspective, how we drive opportunities for the VAR. When we train them, we're not just saying good luck, or we're never just doing a lead generation campaign for them and handing them leads and saying 'Hope you sell this stuff.'"

Bawol said he will be in a "listen and learn" mode for the short term, talking to VARs about their needs from Avnet. He also plans to ask if they're selling the latest technologies, such as virtualization, to customers.

"Virtualization is absolutely red hot. Storage will continue to explode for us. Networking, VOIP and unified messaging are places [where] we are [now] and will continue to invest in," he said. "It's a great time to be in the business. It'll be a big learning curve, but they can take advantage of opportunities in front of them."

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