Lacy Named President of Ingram Industries : Management: The executive is credited with Ingram Micro’s dominance as a worldwide computer distributor.
Linwood A. (Chip) Lacy Jr., a hard-driving executive who helped transform Ingram Micro Inc. from a small regional company into the world’s largest computer distributor with $4 billion in sales, has been elevated to president of Ingram’s parent company.
Sam M. Inman, a former IBM executive who became Ingram Micro’s president and chief operating officer in August, will assume Lacy’s post as chief executive of the Santa Ana-based computer distribution company beginning July 1. Lacy and David Dukes will retain their titles as co-chairmen of Ingram Micro.
“There should be no confusion. Although I’m moving to Nashville, the center of this company is not moving to Nashville,” Lacy said. “Sam Inman will be very much in charge of Ingram Micro in Santa Ana, and my job will be to assist in overall oversight.”
E. Bronson Ingram, 61, will remain chief executive of parent Ingram Industries and has added the title of chairman, while Lacy will take the No. 2 position beginning immediately. Lacy, 48, said his appointment establishes a line of succession for Ingram, an heir of the family that founded the privately held distribution empire that includes computers, books and video cassettes as well as other businesses.
Ingram Industries got its start in the 1940s running towboats and barges on the nation’s inland waterways. About 80% of its $5-billion in revenue comes from Ingram Micro sales, which have grown at least 33% annually for the past eight years under Lacy’s stewardship.
“Chip has done a magnificent job in driving Ingram Micro to the forefront of the worldwide microcomputer distribution business,” said Ingram, whom Forbes Magazine lists as one of America’s richest people with a net worth of about $600 million.
Lacy’s promotion caught the attention of the rest of the computer industry, which has become increasingly dependent on distributors. Lacy ranked fifth this year on a list of the computer industry’s top 25 executives published by the Computer Reseller News trade journal.
“This is really big news,” said Robert Anastasi, analyst at investment bank Robinson Humphrey Co. in Atlanta. “Chip gets credit for saving the company by putting emphasis on being a kind of Wal-Mart, with low cost and high volumes of sales, and turning the company into the world’s biggest distributor. If he can work his magic on the rest of Ingram Industries, Bronson Ingram will be a happy man.”
Lacy joined Ingram Micro as chief executive in its earlier incarnation, when it was known as Micro D, in 1982. The company started in 1979 as a small start-up launched by husband and wife founders Geza Czige and Lorraine Mecca.
Lacy left Micro D after less than a year to be an executive for the Best Products Co. chain and return to his home in Midlothian, Va., where he still lives when he’s not on the road. Meanwhile, Micro D grew to $119 million in sales in 1985, but it was ranked No. 3 in the industry in sales and was losing money.
The founders decided to retire and sold their 50% stake in the firm to Ingram Computer Inc., a subsidiary of Ingram Industries. Lacy again became Micro D’s top executive and concentrated his efforts on growing the company through acquisitions.
He developed a reputation as a tough and brilliant executive who could memorize stacks of company reports. He jogs several miles a day, often works seven days a week, and hardly a month goes by when he isn’t on the road for more than half the time.
“Chip is the most intense executive and also one of the warmest guys I have ever met,” Anastasi said. “You never know where he will call you from somewhere in Europe or aboard a plane.”
By the time the company completely merged with Ingram Computer Inc. in 1989, the combined company had reached $1 billion in sales and overtaken rival Softsel Inc. as the No. 1 distributor of computers in the United States. Lacy kept Ingram ahead of its competitors by making international acquisitions in Europe and expanding the company’s distribution network.
