10. Eight Channel Giants Change CEOs

Eight distributors and major solution providers got new CEOs in 2016 as boards of directors sought out new leaders to reinvigorate business or longtime CEOs stepped away to get a well-deserved retirement.

Avnet CEO Rick Hamada stepped down after more than five years as CEO and a 33-year career at the distributor, and was replaced by former Lenovo CEO Bill Amelio. Brett Dawson resigned as group CEO of Dimension Data, No. 11 on the 2016 CRN Solution Provider 500, and was replaced by COO Jason Goodall. Michael Roach retired as CEO of CGI, No. 18 on the CRN SP 500, and was replaced by President and COO George Schneider.

Phil Norton stepped down after 23 years as ePlus CEO, No. 34 on the CRN SP 500, and was succeeded by COO Mark Marron. Black Box Network Services, No. 37 on the CRN SP 500, hired former Flextronics president E.C. Sykes as CEO, replacing resigning CEO Michael McAndrew. Nitin Rakesh stepped down as CEO of Syntel, No. 38 on the CRN SP 500, and was replaced on an interim basis by COO Rakesh Khanna.

OnX Enterprise Solutions, No. 46 on the CRN SP 500, tapped former Unisys, Xerox and CSC executive Tom Signorello to be its CEO, replacing retiring CEO Michael Cox. And Cliff Bleustein resigned as CEO of CTG, No. 65 on the CRN SP 500, after only 15 months on the job and was replaced by Bud Crumlish, the longtime head of CTG's largest business unit.