Ingram Micro Channel Chief Robinson Earns Second Promotion In Two Years, Adding Strategy And Business Ops Responsibilities

ARTICLE TITLE HERE

Kirk Robinson, a 25-year Ingram veteran who oversees all of its sales, vendor management and marketing as SVP of U.S. Go-to-Market, has been promoted to Chief Country Executive for the U.S., the company announced Wednesday morning. The new position will put Robinson in charge of Ingram's U.S. strategy, operations and business execution.

In that new position, Robinson will go beyond running go-to-market efforts and take on all oversight and accountability for Ingram Micro's U.S. strategy, operations and business execution. "This role includes everything across the technology lifecycle and value chain that we have to offer in the U.S.," Robinson told CRN.

His plans as Chief Country Executive include working with Ingram's partners to better service their customers and make their practices more profitable.

[ Related: Ingram Micro Acquires Cloud Harmonics To Bolster Security Expertise, Add Palo Alto Offerings ]

id
unit-1659132512259
type
Sponsored post

"You will see Ingram Micro grow our partners’ businesses in ways they’ve never imagined. We’ll be indispensable and unstoppable," Robinson told CRN a week after the distributor's U.S. sales kickoff, where the theme "One Ingram" was touted to emphasize more investment in operational excellence, innovation and the partner and associate experience.

Paul Bay, executive vice president and group president of the Americas, will continue to serve as Robinson's direct superior. Bay called 2017 an "exceptional year of growth" for Ingram's U.S. business in prepared remarks that accompanied the announcement.

"Kirk has built a growth-minded career by listening and responding to the business needs of others, and embracing and leading change within Ingram Micro and around it," Bay said in the statement. "His drive to succeed, record of success and inclusive approach to building a high-performance team is what makes Kirk a great leader for our U.S. organization."

Robinson and Bay both earned promotions as recently as August 2016, when Bay went from overseeing the distributor's U.S. and Miami Export businesses to all of the Americas. Robinson had been serving as senior vice president in the company's commercial markets and global sales group and took over many of Bay's previous responsibilities.

Guy Baroan, president of Elmwood Park, N.J.-based Baroan Technologies, an Ingram Micro Trust X Alliance partner, praised both moves in a previous conversation with CRN.

"Kirk Robinson is beloved," Baroan said at the time. "He keeps getting promoted, and he should."

In the time since that leadership realignment took place, Ingram has made key additions to bolster its executive leadership team. More recently, that has included the former sales leader of AppDirect, Richard Dufty, and the longtime Avnet cloud division point-man Tim FitzGerald in a bid to broaden its platform capabilities and drive new ISV relationships.

Robinson has been with Ingram since 1993, holding a number of positions across the IT distribution giant's sales, marketing, business intelligence and vendor management functions. He has been in a channel chief role for more than a decade.

Robinson takes on the new executive role after a busy year for Ingram. The company acquired The Phoenix Group, developer of point-of-sales technology, and Cloud Harmonics, a security distributor, in 2017.

The distributor signed 1,200 new channel partners last year, and surpassed two million active seats in its Cloud Marketplace, Robinson told CRN.

JOSEPH TSIDULKO contributed to this story.