Michael J. Long is chairman, president and chief executive officer (CEO) of Arrow Electronics, Inc.
Prior to being named CEO in May 2009, Long served as president and chief operating officer (COO) of Arrow, with responsibility for all of the company’s operations and business units.
Before that, Long served as senior vice president of Arrow and president of the company’s Global Components business with responsibility for overseeing Arrow’s semiconductor, passive, electromechanical and connector products and services businesses worldwide.
Long has been with Arrow since 1991 when Arrow merged with Schweber Electronics, a company where he held various leadership roles from 1983 to 1990. In 1994, Long was president, Capstone Electronics, an Arrow company, and from 1995 to 1999, he was president, Gates/Arrow Distributing. From 1998 to 2005, Long was president and COO, Arrow North American Computer Products (now Arrow Enterprise Computing Solutions). As a result of his success in running and growing this business, Long was named one of Computer Reseller News' “Top 25 Executives” in 2002 and 2004. Long also served as president, North America and Asia/Pacific components.
Long holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of Wisconsin and attended the Milwaukee School of Engineering. He is active in the Young Presidents’ Organization, a global peer networking group. He serves on the Board of Directors of AmerisourceBergen. He is also on the Board of Directors for the Denver Zoo.
Arrow Electronics was founded in 1935 when a retail store named Arrow Radio opened on Cortlandt Street in the heart of lower Manhattan's "Radio Row," the birthplace of electronics distribution. Arrow Radio, established by Maurice ("Murray") Goldberg, sold used radios and radio parts to retail customers. Other industry pioneers with businesses nearby were Charles Avnet and Seymour Schweber.
By the 1940s, Arrow was selling new radios—manufactured by RCA, GE, and Philco—and other home entertainment products, as well as surplus radio parts that were retailed over-the-counter in a parts department at the back of the store. Soon the firm started seeking franchises to sell new parts; the first manufacturers to franchise Arrow were RCA and Cornell Dubilier. The business was incorporated as Arrow Electronics, Inc. in 1946.
In the early 1950s, with additional franchises and a small field sales organization, Arrow began selling electronic parts to industrial customers. A second storefront/sales office was opened in Mineola, Long Island in 1956. By 1961, when the company completed its initial public offering and listed its shares on the American Stock Exchange, total sales amounted to $4 million, over half of which came from the industrial sales division, with the remainder from the traditional retail business. During the 1960s, Arrow moved its headquarters to Farmingdale, New York (Long Island), and opened additional branches in Norwalk, Connecticut and Totowa, New Jersey. The company relocated its headquarters office to Centennial, Colorado in 201
