New president at Avnet Abacus

Avnet Abacus, one of Europe’s leading interconnect, passive, electro-mechanical and power distributors and a regional business unit of Avnet (NASDAQ: AVT), has announced the appointment of Rudy Van Parijs as president of Avnet Abacus.

He replaces outgoing president Nigel Ward, who is retiring after a successful 30-year career with Avnet.

Rudy (56), similarly, has a long and creditable career with Avnet, first joining EBV Elektronik, an Avnet company, in 1991, as a field application engineer.



This followed a period at the University of Leuven in Belgium, working on machine vision, and a spell with a start up. His subsequent roles within Avnet have seen him progress to head of EBV’s Belgian sales organisation, then as leader of the entire EBV Benelux region, and for six years he was in charge of the company’s technical organisation in Poing, Germany.

For the past eight years he has been at the helm of EBV’s South Europe region, driving business growth across Belgium, France, Italy, Portugal, North Africa and Spain.

Rudy has an excellent technical and commercial background, and holds degrees in electronic engineering and corporate finance. Throughout his career in the various senior roles at EBV he has been instrumental in building successful demand creation programmes, creating strong growth opportunities for the business.

Slobodan Puljarevic, President EBV Elektronik commented: “Rudy is highly qualified to step into the president’s role at Avnet Abacus and to continue the fantastic growth trajectory.”