Mike Hurst is taking on a new role at Avnet Technology Solutions (TS). As vice president, global supplier business executive, Hurst will focus on TS’ Oracle relationship worldwide. For the past three years, Hurst was TS Americas’ vice president/general manager of Sun Solutions group. As such, he worked closely with the Oracle executive team throughout its acquisition and integration of Sun Microsystems.

"Oracle is a strategic Avnet partner in every region we serve," says Phil Gallagher, TS Global’s president. "In this new role, Mike will help us closely align Avnet’s business with Oracle’s channel strategy to further expand the vital role Avnet’s partners play in bringing complete solutions, including hardware, software and services, to market. He will work with Oracle’s executive management team to identify growth opportunities for Avnet and its partners, and to ensure that we are making the most of this business relationship locally, regionally and globally."

Hurst has been in the technology distribution industry for 16 years. Prior to joining Avnet, he served as Access Distribution’s vice president of mature technologies, responsible for its business operations and strategic direction around servers, storage, software and services. Hurst has also held leadership roles in procurement, marketing and contracts management.

"I have found our partners at Oracle to be as enthusiastic as we are about the growth opportunities that will come from the Avnet and Oracle relationship around the globe," adds Hurst. "Oracle’s strategy to deliver complete solutions for enterprise customers is in alignment with Avnet Technology Solutions’ value-added solutions model and core capabilities. I look forward to deepening Avnet’s engagement with them based on our heritage of developing proven solutions that leverage both Oracle and Sun Microsystems products."

With this promotion, Hurst now reports to Gallagher. He also joins a supplier leadership team that includes Tony Madden, global supplier business executive focused on Avnet’s IBM relationship worldwide and Avnet’s Microsoft and VMware relationships in the Americas, and Darren Adams, vice president of supplier business acceleration for the Americas.