Jim Ryan, a 36-year W.W. Grainger Inc. veteran who led the company’s drive into e-commerce, will pass on the role of CEO to D.G. Macpherson, chief operating officer, effective Oct. 16, Grainger said today. Macpherson, also with a strong background in e-commerce, will join the Grainger board on that date and succeed Ryan as chairman at a later unspecified date.

Macpherson is expected to build on Ryan’s efforts over the years in expanding Grainger’s sales through improvements in technology and operations related to e-commerce, its supply chain network, marketing and other areas. Ryan, a former president of Grainger.com, has overseen the company’s steady rise in e-commerce sales to more than 40% of total revenue—a percentage Grainger expects to exceed 50% this year.

Macpherson, who joined Grainger in 2008 after having served it for six years as a partner at Boston Consulting Group, is credited with launching Grainger’s web-only Zoro off-price sales channel, building out Grainger’s global supply chain operations, and developing corporate strategy to “create greater value for customers of all sizes,” Grainger said.

“Grainger is a company with an extraordinary history and an incredibly bright future, and it is my privilege to guide our 23,000 team members worldwide in support of our purpose of helping professionals keep their operations running and their people safe, while creating a company where dedicated, talented people can thrive,” Macpherson said in a statement issued today. “I’m humbled to take on this role and am incredibly grateful to Jim and the board for their mentorship and support in preparing me for this responsibility.”

Grainger, No. 37 in the B2B E-Commerce 300, surpassed $2 billion in e-commerce sales for the first half of this year. It won the B2B E-Commerce Website Design of the Year award at this year’s IRCE; last year, it won the award for B2B E-Commerce Player of the Year, which recognizes pioneers of B2B e-commerce that continue to deploy innovative online ways to serve customers and set examples for other B2B e-commerce companies.

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