Heard in the Channel: Avnet Express appoints new eCommerce exec

Avnet Express announced a new executive appointment recently, naming Andy Thorne vice president, e-Commerce merchandising. A seasoned design engineer and technical expert, Thorne is responsible for expanding the distributor’s online merchandising strategies and will report to Beth Ely, senior vice president of Avnet Express.

“Avnet Express is committed to meeting the online needs of the engineering community on a global scale,” said Ely. “Andy brings to this position a unique skill set that will enable him to ensure that the more than 5 million SKUs available from AvnetExpress.com are properly supported and displayed online. Andy will be integral as we evolve AvnetExpress.com, making it easier for engineers to search, find, buy and research today’s technologies.”

Thorne is a 23-year veteran of the electronics industry, and previously worked as a design engineer at GE Medical, contributing to its nuclear medicine team. Since joining Avnet, Thorne has held roles of increasing responsibility ranging from director of technical marketing to general manager for programmable logic devices in Avnet’s Silica division.

In other news, Avnet also recently restructured its Avnet Electronics Marketing Americas division to better serve customers in the region. The business unit has three specialized divisions: Avnet Electronics Marketing, its broad line business; Avnet Memec, its specialty semiconductor business; and Avnet Embedded. The three divisions will continue as is in 15 key markets, offering customers differentiated technology and value-added services. The balance of the organization will go to market as Avnet Electronics Marketing Americas (EMA), selling the entire EMA line card (EM, Avnet Memec and Avnet Embedded). In the West, for example, the specialty divisions will serve Vancouver/Calgary, Bay Area/Sacramento, Irvine, Los Angeles, San Diego and Phoenix, with EMA serving the Seattle, Portland, Salt Lake City, and Denver areas.

In still other news, the Electronic Components Industry Association finalized the schedule for its Executive Conference to be held later this month in Chicago. Entitled, “Information + Application = Innovation,” the two-day meeting features presentations from industry leaders, innovation experts and marketing professionals, including Glenn Basset of IHS, Guy Blissett of IBM Global Business Services, Frank Cutitta of The Center for Global Branding, Jon Dudas of the youth science organization For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology, Jim Forbes of Pricewaterhousecoopers, Avnet’s Rick Hamada, Littfuse’s Gordon Hunter, Terry Jones of Kayak.com, and Frank Lange of Menlo Worldwide Logistics.

ECIA’s Executive Conference runs October 28-30 at the InterContinental Chicago O’Hare Hotel.

More News

In other news:

Pulse Electronics received a notice of non-compliance from the New York Stock Exchange in late September. The distributor fell below NYSE minimum requirements for being listed—total market capitalization over 30 straight trading days of more than $50 million and reported shareholders’ equity of greater than $50 million. The company has 45 days to submit a plan to the NYSE demonstrating that it can achieve compliance within 18 months of the September 27^th notice.
Distributor TTI Inc. added another character to its promotional video series The Specialist. The distributor recently introduced Supplier Superhero Agent KOA, promoting KOA’s line of resistors.
Connector distributor BTC Electronic Components earned its AS9100 Rev C Quality Recertification.
Circuit protection maker Littlefuse was named a finalist for the 2012 Chicago Innovation Awards, which honor the most innovative new products or services brought to market or to public service from a specific region. The final 10 winners will be announced in a special ceremony in Chicago October 22.

Other companies were making headlines with new distribution agreements:

Allied Electronics signed a distribution agreement with Siemens Corporation to provide Siemens’ low-voltage products, including motor controls, pilot devices and communication devices. Siemens will appear for the first time in Allied's 2013 Catalog, to be released this month.
Avnet Electronics Marketing signed an agreement with Triad Semiconductor, a leader in configurable, low-cost mixed signal ASICs based on via-configurable array (VCA). The agreement provides Avnet’s customers in the defense, medical, industrial, consumer and automotive markets a low-cost, rapid path to semiconductor integration through its ViaASIC solutions.
Arrow Electronics was named sole distributor for the Atmel ATSHA204 Crypto Device with one-stop programming solution.
Future Electronics signed a global distribution agreement with CISSOID, a leader in high-temperature semiconductor solutions.
element14, part of British distribution giant Premier Farnell, announced same-day shipping on the Freescale Freedom hardware for Kinetis KL25 MCUs. Premier Farnell also announced it became an authorized reseller for TE Connectivity’s recently acquired Deutsch non-industrial and commercial transportation brand of products.
Heilind Electronics announced that it is stocking TE Connectivity’s Corcom medium-performance P series power entry modules.
Richardson Electronics expanded its offering of CO2 lasers, adding the French-made Thales electron tube line for use in CO2 laser systems.
Mouser Electronics announced the addition of three new key products: Freescale Kinetis L Series 32-Bit MCUs built on the ARM Cortex-M0+ Processor; zQSFP+ connectors from TE Connectivity; and CEELok Fas-T 10Gb Ethernet connectors, also from TE Connectivity.