New CEO Set to Head Wyle Laboratories : Electronics: President Ralph L. Ozorkiewicz will take over post when Charles M. Clough retires at the Irvine firm.

Wyle Laboratories said Monday that company President Ralph L. Ozorkiewicz will take on the added duties of chief executive officer March 31, when Chairman Charles M. Clough retires from that post.

Clough, 66, will remain chairman of the Irvine-based semiconductor and computer systems distribution company.

Ozorkiewicz, 48, will continue as president, a position he has held since 1992, when he was also elected to Wyle’s board of directors.

Wyle Laboratories, based in Irvine, has expanded its electronic distribution business from $143 million in sales for 1982, the year Clough joined the business, to nearly $800 million last year. The company last month sold its scientific services business unit, which specialized in aerospace defense products testing and engineering, in order to focus on electronics.

Ozorkiewicz held senior executive posts with Los Angeles-based Kierulff Electronics before joining Wyle in 1985 as executive vice president of its Electronics Marketing Group. Before that, he was with Texas Instruments for more than 10 years.

When Ozorkiewicz takes over the duties of chief executive, it will mark only the third time in Wyle’s 45-year history that the post has changed hands. Clough, who become CEO in 1988, called Monday’s announcement part of a logical progression in the transition of the company’s senior management.

Frank S. Wyle, the company’s founding chairman and chief executive, gave up the CEO position in 1979 and retired as chairman in 1985. His successor, Stanley A. Wainer, held the chief executive’s position until 1988 and was chairman until 1991. He was succeeded in both posts by Clough.