SILICA announced two new appointments to its senior management team in Europe. Nigel Ward is joining SILICA as country director for the UK & Ireland and Bill Osterlund is being promoted to become SILICA Nordic sales director. The appointments are part of SILICA's growth strategy for the UK and the Nordic regions. Announcing the appointments, Miguel Fernandez, SILCA President commented, "The new regional leaders will help us achieve our goals of accelerating business, profitable growth and competitive advantage for our valued franchise partners and our customers. I very much look forward to working with them to drive our business forward."
Nigel Ward is taking overall management responsibility for the demand creation and quoting activity within the UK for SILICA and Avnet Abacus. In addition Nigel will also drive further improvement, co-ordination and effectiveness of the UK shared sales entity. Nigel will be dual reporting into Graham McBeth, President Avnet Abacus and Miguel Fernandez, SILICA President, will become a member of the Silica European Management Board and will participate in the Avnet Abacus Country Directors forums. Nigel, who joined Avnet with the Abacus acquisition in 2009, has over 20 years' experience within electronic component distribution. As UK country sales director, Nigel held an integral role during the creation of the shared speedboat model in the UK and is therefore uniquely positioned for the country director role. In his new role Bill Osterlund will report directly to Miguel Fernandez while taking management responsibility for sales and demand creation in Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Finland. Bill will join the European Management Board and will be the first member directly representing the Nordic region. Bill brings 25-years of semiconductor industry experience to this new senior management role. He joined Avnet with the Memec acquisition in 2005 and has since then successfully led SILICA's business in Sweden as country sales manager. Bill possesses great depth of experience in the distribution market, combined with strong leadership and interpersonal abilities. www.silica.com
