Ingram Pres. Cites Family Concerns For Departure

"This decision was the toughest decision I've had to make, but it was all driven by a personal situation," he said. "My family had been living up in Toronto for a year and I was commuting back and forth as much as I could as well as trying to do my job for at least some periods of time remotely, and I really had to make the decision."

Murai's wife returned to Toronto to be closer to her aging parents last year, he said, and he is giving up his position with the world's largest computer products distributor, based in Santa Ana, Calif., to be with his family. Murai's children are 15, 13, 12 and 10 years old.

Ingram CEO Greg Spierkel said that Murai's decision to leave the company did not come as a surprise to him.

"I had as sense that that might happen at some point if his family was living there and he was living here, and frankly I think he's doing what's the right thing from a personal point of view as a result of that," said Spierkel.

"Doing the role that Kevin has with global responsibility and the amount of travel and the corporate headquarters here, but with his family up in Toronto, that was a pretty big challenge. At the end of the day, I think Kevin just felt that it was a good time to get back with the family," he said.

For now, Murai is focusing on helping Ingram and its customers make a smooth transition.

"The only thing going through my head right now is the immediate next 30 days, and then the immediate five months to transition. I think after that I'm going to have to take some time to figure out what it is that I do want to do and figure out what opportunities might be out there," he said.

Whatever that opportunity may be, it will be in Toronto, he said.

"If it's possible I'll stay in technology. Obviously that's where I've spent my last almost 20 years. I'm a technologist at heart anyway, but it's also a challenge. I'll be living out of Toronto too."

In the meantime, Murai hopes he can brush up on his golf game and ski with his children as he'll be returning to Canada in the middle of winter. "It's an interesting time of year to go back to Tornoto."

Murai said he may attend October's VentureTech Invitational conference with soon-to-be Ingram President and COO Alain Monie.

"That group of our partners is such a great group. I was just with the advisory board two days ago, so at that point obviously I couldn't' say anything to them. They're such a great group and very representative of the successful VAR," he said.