D&H Distributing this week appointed Richard Hellar to the newly created position of CIO. Hellar will be tasked with making the distributor's internal technology operations run more smoothly and allow D&H's dealers and VARs to source product faster and more easily.
"We've always prided ourselves on the ability to stay laser-focused on the customers and their needs," said Dan Schwab, D&H co-president, in a Channelweb.com interview. "In a difficult year, some companies have a tendency to pull back and cut investment in IT and customer enhancements. But at D&H, it's a dichotomy: Now's the time we look to double down on our investments and our customers."
Hellar, a 23-year veteran of IT with extensive experience in consumer electronics, heads to D&H after previous stints as director of IT and CIO at Altec Lansing, vice president of IT and CIO at Fedders, and most recently, vice president of information technology at D&M Holdings.
"I'm going to continue to look at the feedback we get from our customers and make sure we have stability in the systems," Hellar said. "[D&H's] focus on the customers and its business model are really what drove me here."
"I think we were looking for someone not predisposed to a certain technology or product, and someone to fit our core philosophy," Schwab added. "Rick understands that as a distributor, you're a facilitator between the vendors and manufacturers and tens of thousands of unique customers."
Schwab said before Hellar's position was created, his role was essentially divided among a number of departments and budgets at D&H. The distributor wanted to tie those roles together, he said, under someone who could spearhead D&H's vision for more efficient operations.
"We had an excellent team very focused on execution, so the switch we flip with bringing Rick on board is that he's more the visionary of where we need to get to," Schwab said. "We've been very focused on customer enhancements on an annual and quarterly basis. Rick has the ability to help us see even further out."
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