Gateway Names Ed Coleman CEO

Gateway named Ed Coleman as its new CEO, effective Sept. 18, according to the PC maker.

Coleman, who is currently senior vice president and president of Arrow Electronics' Enterprise Computing Solutions, will replace Rick Snyder, who has served as Gateway's interim CEO since February after Wayne Inouye resigned.

Coleman spent one year at Arrow Electronics, Melville, N.Y. He replaced long-time Arrow executive Mike Long, who was named to lead Arrow's components division.

Previously, Coleman was CEO at CompuCom Systems, a large corporate reseller. It was Coleman's experience taking CompuCom from a low-margin business into a services model that made him attractive to Arrow, Long told CRN at the time.

Arrow named Catherine Morris as acting president of Arrow ECS, which includes distribution units focused on IBM, Hewlett-Packard, Sun Microsystems and enterprise storage products.

Arrow will conduct a search for a permanent replacement for Coleman, according to the company.

"[Morris] has extensive experience in the ECS business and knows our customers and suppliers well. Her role in developing our strategic initiatives for ECS and her extensive operating experience will ensure the continued success of this very important business. I am pleased that she has agreed to step into this critical role during this time," said William Mitchell, chairman, president and CEO of Arrow Electronics, in a statement. "We thank Ed Coleman for his time at Arrow and we wish him success at Gateway."

Gateway, the third largest PC maker in the United States behind HP and Dell, reportedly is seeing renewed interest from investors, according to published reports. Late last week, Gateway rejected a $450 million bid to take over its retail operations by Lap Shun Hui, a former executive at eMachines.

Gateway's board "determined that the unsolicited expression of interest from Lap Shun (John) Hui to acquire Gateway's retail operations is not in the best interest of shareholders," according to a statement by the company.