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Arrow Electronics was founded in 1935 when a retail store called Arrow Radio opened on Cortlandt Street in the center of Radio Row in Lower Manhattan, the birthplace of electronic product distribution. Arrow Radio, established by Maurice ("Murray") Goldberg, sells second-hand radios and radio parts to retail customers. Other industry pioneers with nearby businesses are Charles Avnet and Seymour Schweber.

Vision

In 1968, three recent graduates from Harvard Business School, B The Glenn Green&Waddle Partnership, consisting of Duke Glenn, Roger E. Green, and John C. Waddle, led a private investment group that acquired a controlling stake in Arrow. With Duke Glenn serving as chairman, the new leadership foresaw an opportunity to transform the electronic distribution industry.

The company's strategic vision was described in its 1969 annual report:

Mainly due to the dispersed competitive environment, we have huge opportunities in the electronic distribution business. In this competitive environment, the sales of approximately 1500 small distributors account for about half of the entire market. In the future, it is likely to increasingly belong to a few large distribution companies that have financial resources, professional knowledge, and technology to manage, as well as fully participate in the modern control systems required for the current integration stage of the industry.

Ten years of rapid growth

In the 1970s, Arrow's annual distribution sales were $9 million, ranking 12th among electronic product distributors in the United States. Avnet, ranked first, is eight times larger than Arrow.

In the 1970s, Arrow steadily rose in ranking by winning key semiconductor franchises (led by Texas Instruments in 1970) and opening sales offices in over 20 US cities, with its electronic distribution business growing at an average annual rate of 34%. By the late 1990s, the company's electronic product distribution sales had climbed to $177 million, making Arrow the second largest electronic product distributor in the United States.

Arrow's aggressive growth strategy to gain industry advantages requires a significant injection of working capital, and as a result, the company relies on frequent public bond issuances, which temporarily leads to abnormally high debt levels. In 1969, Schuylkill Metals Corporation, a lead recycling company, was acquired as a cash cow, thereby gaining additional growth capital. This enterprise has fulfilled its mission and was sold in 1987

In the 1970s, Arrow ceased its retail business and launched the first integrated online real-time computer system for electronic distribution to provide the latest inventory status and facilitate remote order entry. In 1979, Arrow went public on the New York Stock Exchange and acquired Cramer Electronics (the second-largest distributor in history in the United States), marking the company's first major industry acquisition and providing it with the opportunity to enter most of the leading markets in the western United States.

Boldly return from tragedy

In 1980, a fire that occurred in a hotel conference center claimed the lives of 13 Arrow executives, including Glenn and Green. Walder served as the leader and hired Stephen P. Kaufman, a former partner of McKinsey&Company, as the president of Arrow's electronic distribution division in 1982.

Kaufman took over as CEO from Walder in 1986 and became Chairman in 1994. In 2000, veteran Daniel W. Duvall, who had worked on the Arrow Board for 15 years, was appointed as Kaufman's successor, and William E. Mitchell took over in 2003. Under the leadership of Kaufman and Mitchell, Arrow entered the 21st century with $9 billion in global sales of electronic components and $3 billion in sales of emerging computer products. During this period, Arrow was named the "Most Admired Company in the World" by Fortune magazine, with sales climbing to $17 billion in the past decade.

Now

Michael J. Long succeeded Mitchell as CEO in 2009 and became Chairman in 2010. As an experienced executive, he served Schweber Electronics for a long time from 1983 to 1990, and joined Arrow after the merger of the two companies in 1991. Before becoming CEO, he held many increasingly senior management positions at Arrow and led the company through a decade of growth, witnessing over 40 strategic acquisitions and the expansion of its global components and computer systems business.

On June 1, 2022, Sean J. Kerins succeeded Long as President and CEO. Kerins joined Arrow in 2007 as Vice President of North American Storage and Networking, responsible for the company's enterprise computing solutions business. He was appointed as the Global President of the business in 2014, and then appointed as the Chief Operating Officer of Arrow in 2020.

The company is ranked 109th in the Fortune 500 and has been ranked first in the industry for 10 consecutive years on Fortune magazine's "World's Most Admired Companies" list.