Chief Information Officer Quits Ingram Micro

Adding to the exodus of top executives, Ingram Micro Inc. said Wednesday its chief information officer is leaving for a top spot at General Motors Corp.

Richard J. Kish, who joined the Santa Ana-based computer distributor in late 1997, has headed the company’s technology initiatives, including co-chairing its e-commerce group.

He will head General Motors’ electronic commerce and distribution team. He could not be reached for comment.

An Ingram Micro spokeswoman said Wednesday that Kish’s departure “will not affect the company in the least.” His interim replacement is Guy P. Abramo, senior vice president of worldwide marketing.

“I have been leading the Web side, which is where much of Ingram Micro’s technology focus has been the last 12 months,” Abramo said in a statement. “So it is a natural evolution [for me] to take the acting role of the rest of the [Information Technology group].”

Analysts said that Kish’s departure is reflective of a corporatewide turnover at the world’s largest computer distributor, and they note that he is at least the third high-level Ingram executive to leave the company in the past three months.

Others have moved to take the reins of other companies, such as Greg Hawkins, the former senior vice president of global sales, who became chief executive of Aliso Viejo Internet retailer Buy.com.

While analysts have been surprised by the executive moves, the industry was shocked when Ingram Micro announced in September that Chairman Jerre Stead will step down as chief executive as soon as a replacement is found. Stead said he was leaving because several of his family members were experiencing serious health problem.

The decision, however, coincided with the company warning that its earnings would be lower than expected, saying that it has stumbled during an industrywide slump that has seen vicious price-cutting erode profits.

Ingram’s sales have plummeted--and its stock price has hit all-time lows--because the Internet is forcing an evolution of the distribution industry. Companies such as Dell Computer Corp., for example, are selling directly to consumers online and cutting out distributors such as Ingram.

The company’s stock price rose 31 cents Wednesday, closing at $14.

In October, the company said it had lost yet another senior executive--and the person seen by many as one of the leading candidates to replace Stead. Jeffrey Rodek, 46, who had been president and chief operating officer of the company since 1995, resigned to head a Silicon Valley software firm.

Rodek left the world’s largest computer distributor to become the chief executive at Sunnyvale-based Hyperion Solutions Corp., which markets high-end analytical database software.

Ingram Micro also recently announced the departure of Phil Ellett, who oversaw the computer distributor’s U.S. operations.

Stead dismissed analyst concerns about the turnover last month, saying that only 21 of the company’s 400 senior executives have departed.