Avnet has named William P Sullivan, president and CEO of Agilent Technologies, to its board of directors replacing, James A Lawrence, CFO of Unilever.
 
"We are delighted to welcome Mr. Sullivan to the Avnet board," Roy Vallee, Avnet's chairman and CEO, said in a statement Wednesday. "His knowledge of the technology industry and hands-on experience running a global organisation will benefit Avnet as we continue to grow."
 
Sullivan has served as the president and CEO of test giant Agilent since March 2005. He served as executive VP and COO of Agilent from March 2002 until March 2005, and as its senior VP and general manager of its semiconductor products group from August 1999 until March 2002.

Sullivan also serves on the boards of URS, as well as the Children's Discovery Museum in San Jose.
 
Concurrent with the appointment, Avnet reported that Lawrence resigned from the distributor's nine-member board of directors due to change in employment that required his relocation to Europe. Lawrence joined Avnet's board in 1999.
 
"We are very sorry to see Jim leave our board, but we respect his decision and understand his concern with being able to commit appropriate time to our board given his new job responsibilities and location," Vallee said.

Avnet's board is chaired by Vallee and, in addition to Sullivan, includes Eleanor Baum, dean of engineering at Cooper Union Engineering School; J Veronica Biggins, an equity partner of HNCL Search; retired Boeing executive Lawrence Clarkson; Columbia University's Ehud Houminer; Frank Noonan, former chairman and CEO of RH Donnelley Co; Ray M Robinson, a retired AT&T executive; and former Motorola CEO Gary L Tooker.

By Suzanne Deffree, Managing Editor, News - Electronic News