Ingram Micro Inc.’s new Chief Executive Alain Monie recently sat down with the Business Journal’s Chris Casacchia, giving his first in-depth interview since taking the helm of the world’s largest technology distributor in late January.
Monie offered glimpses into his management style, his views on Orange County, the transition at Ingram, and the philanthropic legacy of predecessor Gregory Spierkel. Here are some edited excerpts from the talk (see related story, page 1).
What role do you envision playing here in Orange County?
I want to get involved and understand what I can do to help in the community and play a role. As a large company here, we need to do it, and I want to do it. If we can help in some areas, whether it’s education, charity, whatever it is, we will do it. I don’t want this to be an advertisement.
Are there advantages to being in Orange County?
Orange County is a place where you have good talent—you have broad talent in IT. It’s probably second to Silicon Valley, which is the world mecca. Once you’re outside that area, Orange County is a great place. You have a very good work force, very skilled, easily accessible.
Orange County is a great place, and whenever you have to recruit someone who is not from Orange County, this is not a bad place to come to. It’s an attraction. I’ve lived and worked in many countries around the world, and this is not a difficult one to attract people.
What have been your initial priorities as the head of the company?
When there is a change of the guard there’s always anxiety, internally and externally. The first thing to do very quickly is to be very transparent—say who you are, what direction you’re going and what your expectations are.
I’ve worked very closely with Greg for many years. We know each other very well; we’ve worked very well together. We know what to expect from each other. We had already a very good working balance between us, so this was a very easy transition. Externally it was less obvious to sense it; internally it hasn’t been an issue at all.
I know the strategy of the company very well, because I was part of setting it up. That’s clearly something we are going to continue, except for a couple of areas. It’s more about speed and ratios of what’s important, rather than a change in direction.
