Avnet Inc. Elects Three New Corporate Officers, Promotes Assistant Corporate Secretary.

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

PHOENIX--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 17, 2004

Avnet Inc. (NYSE:AVT) announces the election of three new corporate officers: Vice Presidents Ger Coppus, Jeffrey Ittel and Thomas McCartney. Assistant Secretary Catherine R. Hardwick has been promoted to secretary.

Ger Coppus, currently president of Avnet Technology Solutions-EMEA, is a 25-year electronics industry veteran who began his career as an engineer, designing hardware and software using Motorola components. He joined Avnet in October 2000 with the acquisition of the pan-European VEBA Electronics Group.

Prior to the acquisition Coppus had a successful tenure, first in the Netherlands and later in Belgium, as a managing director of REIN Elektronik, part of RKE Systems, a VEBA company, and one of Europe's leading value-added distributors of computer systems and subsystems. When he came to Avnet, Coppus joined a division of the former Avnet Applied Computing group. He served as regional director, then as vice president, and in 2002 was promoted to president of Avnet Applied Computing-EMEA.

Avnet Applied Computing merged with Avnet Computer Marketing in July 2003 to form a single, global operating group, Avnet Technology Solutions. Coppus was named president of Avnet Technology Solutions-EMEA, at the time of the merger. He reports to Rick Hamada, president of Avnet Technology Solutions.

Jeffrey Ittel, in June 2002, was named president of Avnet Cilicon, the semiconductor division of Avnet Electronics Marketing-Americas, reporting to Harley Feldberg, president of Avnet Electronics Marketing-Americas.

Previously, Ittel served for two years as senior vice president and director of the Avnet Cilicon product business group.

After joining Hamilton/Avnet in 1984, Ittel rose through sales management and district management ranks to become North American business manager for Motorola products, North Central vice president and area director and, subsequently, director of Avnet Electronics Marketing-Americas' high-end and communications semiconductor product business unit in 1998, which was later restructured to become Avnet Cilicon.

Thomas McCartney, a 22-year veteran of the electronic components distribution industry, has served for the past two years as president of Avnet IP&E, the Americas-based interconnect, passive & electromechanical division of Avnet Electronics Marketing-Americas, and the largest IP&E distributor in the world. He reports to Feldberg.

In his 20 years with Avnet, he has held a number of key positions. McCartney served as senior vice president/director of the IP&E Product Business Group, Avnet Electronics Marketing-Americas, and previously was vice president/director of Avnet Electronics Marketing-Americas' Passive & Electromechanical Product Business Unit.

McCartney began his career in distribution with Powell Electronics in 1982. He joined Time Electronics in 1984, where he spent the next 14 years advancing his career in sales, branch management, regional management and as area sales director. He was subsequently promoted to senior vice president of the Avnet Electronics Marketing Group's IP&E Product Business Group.

Catherine Hardwick, associate general counsel for Avnet Inc., has been promoted to corporate secretary, assuming one of the roles formerly held by David Birk, corporate senior vice president, general counsel and chief of staff, who has taken a senior executive expatriate assignment. Hardwick is responsible for providing legal support primarily in the areas of securities law compliance, finance, and corporate reporting and record keeping. As secretary, she assists Avnet's board of directors with corporate governance issues and in complying with public company regulation. She reports to Neil Taylor, deputy general counsel.

Hardwick is credited with driving best practices in corporate governance, which led the company to its recognition by the Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS). According to the ISS' Corporate Governance Quotient Ratings, Avnet outperformed more than 99.7 percent of Standard & Poor's 400 companies and 100 percent of companies in the technology hardware and equipment category within the Russell 3000 list of the largest U.S. stocks by market capitalization.

"I am very pleased to recognize the noteworthy and valuable contributions of these fine leaders," said Roy Vallee, Avnet Inc. chairman and CEO. "On behalf of the Avnet executive board and board of directors, I congratulate them and proudly acknowledge their outstanding individual efforts."

Phoenix-based Avnet Inc. is an authorized B2B distributor for the products of more than 250 of the world's leading technology manufacturers such as IBM, Motorola, Intel, Microsoft, Texas Instruments, HP and National Semiconductor. Via its two operating groups, Avnet markets, distributes and adds value to electronic components, embedded systems and enterprise computing products, and serves more than 100,000 customers including original equipment manufacturers, original design manufacturers, contract manufacturers, value-added resellers, systems integrators and end users in 68 countries. Avnet also delivers services such as inventory management and logistics, supply-chain integration, bill-of-materials analysis, systems integration and configuration, technical assistance and engineering design. A Fortune 500 company, Avnet's revenues for fiscal 2003 (year ended June 27, 2003) were $9.05 billion. Its Web site is located at www.avnet.com/.