Item 1. Business

Our Company

CDW Corporation (together with its subsidiaries, the “Company”, “CDW” or “we”) is a Fortune 500 company and a leading provider of integrated information technology (“IT”) solutions in the United States (“US”), Canada, and the United Kingdom (“UK”). We help over 250,000 small, medium and large business, government, education and healthcare customers by delivering solutions to meet their increasingly complex IT needs. Our broad array of offerings ranges from discrete hardware and software products to integrated IT solutions such as mobility, security, data center, virtualization and digital workspace. We are technology “agnostic,” with a solutions portfolio including more than 100,000 products and services from more than 1,000 leading and emerging brands. Our solutions are delivered in physical, virtual and cloud-based environments through over 5,500 customer-facing coworkers, including field sellers, highly-skilled technology specialists and advanced service delivery engineers.

We are a leading sales channel partner for many original equipment manufacturers (“OEMs”) and software publishers and cloud providers (collectively, our “vendor partners”), whose products we sell or include in the solutions we offer. We provide our vendor partners with a cost-effective way to reach customers and deliver a consistent brand experience through our established end-market coverage, technical expertise and extensive customer access.

We simplify the complexities of technology across design, selection, procurement, integration and management for our customers. Our goal is to have our customers, regardless of their size, view us as a trusted adviser and extension of their IT resources. We do not manufacture products. Our multi-brand offering approach enables us to identify the products or combination of products from our vendor partners that best address each customer’s specific IT requirements.

We operate in the United States, United Kingdom and Canadian IT markets, which are large and growing markets. Through our acquisition of CDW UK, we can provide IT solutions in more than 80 countries for customers with primary locations in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom. According to the International Data Corporation (“IDC”), the total US, UK and Canadian IT market generated approximately $890 billion in sales in 2016. We believe our addressable markets in the US, UK and Canada represent more than $290 billion in annual sales. These are highly fragmented markets served by thousands of IT resellers and solutions providers. For the year ended December 31, 2016, we estimate that our total Net sales of $14 billion represented approximately 5% of our addressable markets. We believe that demand for IT will continue to outpace general economic growth in the markets we serve fueled by new technologies, including cloud, virtualization and mobility as well as growing end-user demand for security, efficiency and productivity.

Value Proposition

We are positioned in the middle of the IT ecosystem where we procure products from OEMs, software publishers, cloud providers and wholesale distributors and provide added value to our customers by helping them navigate through complex options and implement the best solution for their business. In this role, we believe we provide unique value to both our vendor partners and our customers.

Customers

We provide integrated IT solutions to over 250,000 small, medium and large business, government, education and healthcare customers throughout North America and the United Kingdom.

We serve our customers through sales teams focused on customer end-markets that are supported by technical specialists and highly skilled service delivery engineers. Our market segmentation allows us to customize our offerings and to provide enhanced expertise in designing and implementing IT solutions that meet our customer’s specific needs.

In our US business, which represents over 90% of our revenues, we currently have five dedicated customer channels: medium/large business, small business, government, education and healthcare, each of which generated over $1 billion in Net

sales in 2016 . Net sales to customers in Canada and the United Kingdom combined generated more than $1 billion in 2016. We believe this diversity of customer end-markets provide us with multiple avenues for growth and has been a key factor in our ability to weather economic and technology cycles and continue to gain market share.

Information regarding our reportable segments and our customer channels is as follows:

For further information regarding our segments, including financial results, see Note 16 (Segment Information) to the accompanying Consolidated Financial Statements under Item 8, “Financial Statements and Supplementary Data.”

Partners

We provide more than 100,000 products and services from more than 1,000 partners, including well-established companies such as Adobe, APC, Apple, Cisco, Dell, EMC, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, HP Inc., IBM, Intel, Lenovo, Microsoft, NetApp, Samsung, Symantec and VMware, as well as from emerging technology companies such as Bit9, Calabrio, CloudPhysics, Cradlepoint, Nasuni, Nimble Storage, Nutanix, Proofpoint, Snow, Splunk, Tegile, Tintri and Veeam. This broad portfolio of partners and technologies enables us to offer customers significant choice and meet customer demand for the products and solutions that best meet their needs. We believe our value proposition to vendor partners enables us to evolve our offering as new technologies emerge and new companies seek us as a channel partner.

In 2016 , we generated over $1 billion of Net sales from each of four of our vendor partners and over $100 million of revenue from each of thirteen other vendor partners. In late 2015, we expanded our partnership with Dell and now provide their entire suite of products and services across all of our customer channels. We have received the highest level of certification from major vendor partners such as Cisco, Dell, EMC, Hewlett Packard Enterprise and Microsoft, which reflects the extensive product and solution knowledge and capabilities that we bring to our customers’ IT challenges. These certifications also provide us with access to favorable pricing, tools and resources, including vendor incentive programs, which we use to provide additional value to our customers. Our vendor partners also regularly recognize us with top awards and select us to develop and grow new customer solutions.

Product Procurement

We may purchase all or only some of the products our vendor partners offer for resale to our customers or for inclusion in the solutions we offer. Each vendor partner agreement provides for specific terms and conditions, which may include one or more of the following: product return privileges, price protection policies, purchase discounts and vendor incentive programs, such as, purchase or sales rebates and cooperative advertising reimbursements. We also purchase software from major software publishers and cloud providers for resale to our customers or for inclusion in the solutions we offer. Our agreements allow the end-user customer to acquire cloud-based solutions software or licensed products and services.

In addition to purchasing products directly from our vendor partners, we purchase products from wholesale distributors for resale to our customers or for inclusion in the solutions we offer. These wholesale distributors provide logistics management and supply-chain services for us, as well as for our vendor partners.

For our US operations, we purchased approximately 50% of the products we sold as discrete products or as components of a solution directly from our vendor partners and the remaining 50% from wholesale distributors for the year ended December 31, 2016 . Purchases from our three largest wholesale distributors, Tech Data, SYNNEX and Ingram Micro, are each approximately 10% of total purchases.

Inventory Management

We operate two distribution centers in North America: a 450,000 square foot facility in Vernon Hills, Illinois, and a 513,000 square foot facility in North Las Vegas, Nevada. We also operate a 120,000 square foot distribution center in Rugby, Warwickshire, UK. We ship over 40 million units annually on an aggregate basis from our distribution centers.

We also have drop-shipment arrangements with many of our OEMs and wholesale distributors, which permit us to offer products to our customers without having to take physical delivery at our distribution centers. These arrangements generally represent approximately 45% to 55% of total consolidated Net sales, of which approximately 20% to 30% relate to electronic delivery for software licenses.

We believe that the location of our distribution centers allows us efficiently ship products to our customers and provide timely access to our principal distributors.

We believe competitive sources of supply are available in substantially all of the product categories that we offer.

Competition

The market for technology products and services is highly competitive and subject to economic conditions and rapid technological changes. Competition is based on many things, including the ability to tailor specific solutions to customer needs, the quality and breadth of product and service offerings, knowledge and expertise of sales force, customer service, price, product availability, speed of delivery and credit availability. We face competition from resellers, direct manufacturers, large service providers, cloud providers, telecommunication companies, and to a lesser extent e-tailers and retailers. Smaller, local or regional value added resellers typically focus on a single solution suite or portfolio of solutions from one or two vendors partners.

We believe we are well positioned to compete within this marketplace due to our competitive advantages. We expect the competitive landscape in which we compete to continue to evolve as new technologies are developed. While innovation can help our business as it creates new offerings for us to sell, it can also disrupt our business model and create new and stronger competitors. For a discussion of the risks associated with competition, see Item 1A, “Risk Factors.”

Our Competitive Advantages

We believe we have sustainable competitive advantages that differentiate us in the marketplace.  We have built a strong sales organization and deep services and solutions capabilities over time and expect to continue to invest in coworkers to enhance these capabilities, which we believe when combined with our competitive advantages of scale and a performance driven culture, will help drive sustainable, profitable growth for us today and in the future.   Our scale enables us to have a national and international footprint, as well invest in resources to meet specific customer end-market needs. Our sellers are organized around unique customer end-markets that are both vertically and geographically focused.  Our scale enables our ability to invest in technical coworkers who work directly with our sellers to help customers implement increasingly complex IT solutions.  Our scale also enables us to operate our three distribution centers (two in the US and one in the UK) which combined are more than 1 million square feet in size.  With the acquisition of CDW UK in 2015, we have cross-border relationships that enable us to serve the needs of our US, UK and Canadian-based customers in more than 80 countries. Our strong, execution-oriented culture is underpinned by our compensation system.

Our Offerings

Our offerings range from discrete hardware and software products and services to complex integrated solutions including one or more of these elements. We believe our customers increasingly view technology purchases as integrated solutions rather than discrete product and service categories. We estimate that approximately 50% of our Net sales in 2016 in the US came from sales of product categories and services typically associated with solutions. Our hardware products include notebooks/mobile devices (including tablets), network communications, enterprise and data storage, video monitors, printers, desktop computers and servers. Our software products include application suites, security, virtualization, operating systems and network management. Our services include warranties, managed services, consulting design and implementation.

Today, IT is critical to both “run the business” and drive greater growth and productivity. To help our customers accomplish this, we have built a robust portfolio of solutions across data center, digital workspace, security, virtualization and services that we provide in physical, virtual, or cloud-based environments.

We provide public cloud solutions which reside off customer premises on a public (shared) infrastructure, and private cloud solutions, which reside on customer premises. We also offer hybrid cloud solutions that deliver the benefits of both public and private solutions. Our migration, integration and managed services offerings help our customers simplify cloud adoption, as well as the ongoing management of cloud solutions across the entire IT lifecycle. Dedicated Cloud Client Executives work with our customers to architect cloud solutions meeting their organizational, technology and financial objectives. These offerings are underpinned by our 24 by 7 network operating centers, as well as services that include cloud planning services and managed cloud. All of these investments help our customers maximize the return on their IT investments.

We offer a broad portfolio of integrated solutions that include the following on and off-premise capabilities:

Although we believe customers increasingly view technology purchases as solutions rather than discrete product and service categories, our Net sales by major category, based upon our internal category classifications was as follow:

Our Internal Capabilities

Our Coworkers

As of December 31, 2016, we employed 8,516 coworkers with approximately 7,500 coworkers in North America and 1,000 in the United Kingdom. Approximately two thirds of our coworkers at year-end 2016 were customer facing. Over fifty percent of our Net sales are generated by account managers who have greater than seven years of experience. Account managers are supported by field sellers, highly skilled technology specialists and advanced service delivery engineers. We believe this structure to be core to our ability to continue to offer complex IT solutions and services.

None of our coworkers are covered by collective bargaining agreements. We consider our coworker relations to be good.

Marketing

We market the CDW brand to US, Canadian and British audiences using a variety of channels that include online, broadcast, print, social and other media. We market to current and prospective customers through integrated marketing programs including behaviorally targeted email, print, online media, events and sponsorships, as well as broadcast media. This promotion is also supported by integrated communication efforts targeting decision-makers, influencers and the general public using a combination of news releases, case studies, media interviews and speaking opportunities.

As a result of our relationships with our vendor partners, a significant portion of our advertising and marketing expenses is reimbursed through cooperative advertising programs. These programs are at the discretion of our vendor partners and are typically tied to sales or other commitments to be met by us within a specified period of time. We believe that our results and analytical techniques that measure the efficacy of our marketing programs differentiate us from our competitors.

Information Technology Systems

We maintain customized IT and unified communication systems that enhance our ability to provide prompt, efficient and expert service to our customers. In addition, these systems enable centralized management of key functions, including purchasing, inventory management, billing and collection of accounts receivable, sales and distribution. Our systems provide us with thorough, detailed and real-time information regarding key aspects of our business. This capability helps us to continuously enhance productivity, ship customer orders quickly and efficiently, respond appropriately to industry changes and provide high levels of customer service. We believe our websites, which provide electronic order processing and advanced tools, such as order tracking, reporting and asset management, make it easy for customers to transact business with us and ultimately strengthen our customer relationships.

Intellectual Property

The CDW trademark and certain variations thereon are registered or subject to pending trademark applications in the US, Canada, UK and certain other jurisdictions. We believe our trademarks have significant value and are important factors in our marketing programs. In addition, we own registrations for domain names, including cdw.com and cdwg.com and variations thereon, for certain of our primary trademarks. We also have unregistered copyrights in our website content.

History

Founded in 1984, CDW became a public company in 1993. In 2003, we purchased selected United States assets and the Canadian operations of Micro Warehouse, which extended our growth platform into Canada. In 2006, we acquired Berbee Information Networks Corporation, a regional provider of technology products, solutions and customized engineering services in advanced technologies primarily across Cisco, IBM and Microsoft portfolios. This acquisition increased our capabilities in customized engineering services and managed services.

We were a public company from 1993 until October 12, 2007 when we were acquired through a merger transaction by an entity controlled by investment funds affiliated with Madison Dearborn Partners, LLC (“Madison Dearborn”) and Providence Equity Partners L.L.C. (“Providence Equity”). CDW Corporation continued as the surviving corporation and same legal entity after the acquisition, but became a wholly owned subsidiary of VH Holdings, Inc., a Delaware corporation.

On July 2, 2013, CDW Corporation completed the IPO of its common stock. In connection with the IPO, CDW Holdings distributed all of its shares of CDW Corporation’s common stock to its members in June 2013 in accordance with the members’ respective membership interests and was subsequently dissolved in August 2013. See Note 10 (Stockholders’ Equity) to the

accompanying Consolidated Financial Statements under Item 8, “Financial Statements and Supplementary Data” for additional discussion of the IPO.

Before the IPO, Madison Dearborn and Providence Equity owned 46.0% and 40.6% of our common stock, respectively. After the IPO through secondary offerings and fund distributions, Madison Dearborn and Providence Equity liquidated their ownership positions. As of December 31, 2016 neither firm held a private equity position in CDW.

On November 10, 2014, we completed the acquisition of a 35% non-controlling equity interest in UK-based IT solutions provider, Kelway TopCo Limited (“Kelway”.) On August 1, 2015, we purchased the remaining 65% of Kelway’s outstanding common stock, which increased our ownership interest from 35% to 100% and provided us control. Rebranded CDW UK in April 2016, the acquisition extended our footprint into the United Kingdom. It also enhanced our ability to provide IT solutions to US-based customers with multinational locations. Financial results of CDW UK are included in our Consolidated Financial Statements from the date of acquisition. For further details regarding the acquisition, see Note 3 (Acquisition) to the accompanying Consolidated Financial Statements under Item 8, “Financial Statements and Supplementary Data.”

Available Information

We maintain a website at www.cdw.com. You may access our Annual Reports on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, Current Reports on Form 8-K and amendments to those reports filed or furnished pursuant to Section 13(a) or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 with the SEC free of charge at our website as soon as reasonably practicable after such material is electronically filed with, or furnished to, the SEC. Our website and the information contained on that site, or connected to that site, are not incorporated into and are not a part of this report.

Item 1A. Risk Factors

There are many factors that could adversely affect our business, results of operations and cash flows, some of which are beyond our control. The following is a description of some important factors that may cause our business prospects, results of operations and cash flows in future periods to differ materially from those currently expected or desired. Factors not currently known to us or that we currently deem to be immaterial may also materially and adversely affect our business, results of operations and cash flows.

Risks Related to Our Business

Global and regional economic conditions may have an adverse impact on our business.

Weak economic conditions generally, sustained uncertainty about global economic conditions, government spending cuts and the impact of new government policies, or a tightening of credit markets, could cause our customers and potential customers to postpone or reduce spending on technology products or services or put downward pressure on prices, which could have an adverse effect on our business, results of operations or cash flows. For example, there continues to be substantial uncertainty regarding the economic impact of the Referendum on the United Kingdom’s Membership of the European Union (“EU”) (referred to as “Brexit”), advising for the exit of the UK from the EU. Potential adverse consequences of Brexit such as global market uncertainty, volatility in currency exchange rates, greater restrictions on imports and exports between UK and EU countries and increased regulatory complexities could have a negative impact on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Our financial performance could be adversely affected by decreases in spending on technology products and services by our public sector customers.

Our sales to our public sector customers are impacted by government spending policies, budget priorities and revenue levels. An adverse change in government spending policies (including ongoing budget cuts at the federal level), budget priorities or revenue levels could cause our public sector customers to reduce their purchases or to terminate or not renew their contracts with us, which could adversely affect our business, results of operations or cash flows. For example, in 2013, as a result of sequestration and related budget uncertainty and the partial shutdown of the US federal government for 16 days, we experienced significantly reduced US Federal sales in our Public segment.

Our business depends on our vendor partner relationships and the availability of their products.

We purchase products for resale from vendor partners, which include OEMs and software publishers, and wholesale distributors. For the year ended December 31, 2016 , we purchased approximately 50% of the products we sold directly from vendor partners and the remaining amount from wholesale distributors for our North American operations. We are authorized by vendor partners to sell all or some of their products via direct marketing activities. Our authorization with each vendor partner is subject to specific terms and conditions regarding such things as sales channel restrictions, product return privileges, price protection policies, purchase discounts and vendor partner programs and funding, including purchase rebates, sales volume rebates, purchasing

incentives and cooperative advertising reimbursements. However, we do not have any long-term contracts with our vendor partners and many of these arrangements are terminable upon notice by either party. A reduction in vendor partner programs or funding or our failure to timely react to changes in vendor partner programs or funding could have an adverse effect on our business, results of operations or cash flows. In addition, a reduction in the amount of credit granted to us by our vendor partners could increase our need for, and the cost of, working capital and could have an adverse effect on our business, results of operations or cash flows, particularly given our substantial indebtedness.

From time to time, vendor partners may terminate or limit our right to sell some or all of their products or change the terms and conditions or reduce or discontinue the incentives that they offer us. For example, there is no assurance that, as our vendor partners continue to sell directly to end users and through resellers, they will not limit or curtail the availability of their products to solutions providers like us. Any such termination or limitation or the implementation of such changes could have a negative impact on our business, results of operations or cash flows.

Although we purchase from a diverse vendor base, in 2016 , products we purchased from wholesale distributors Ingram Micro, SYNNEX and Tech Data each represented approximately 10% of total US purchases. In addition, sales of products manufactured by Apple, Cisco, Dell, EMC, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, HP Inc., Lenovo and Microsoft, whether purchased directly from these vendor partners or from a wholesale distributor, represented in the aggregate nearly 60% of our 2016 consolidated Net sales. Sales of products manufactured by Cisco and HP Inc. represented over 25% of our 2016 consolidated Net sales. The loss of, or change in business relationship with, any of these or any other key vendor partners, or the diminished availability of their products, including due to backlogs for their products leading to manufacturer allocation, could reduce the supply and increase the cost of products we sell and negatively impact our competitive position.

Additionally, the relocation of key distributors utilized in our purchasing model could increase our need for, and the cost of, working capital and have an adverse effect on our business, results of operations or cash flows. Further, the sale, spin-off or combination of any of our vendor partners and/or certain of their business units, including any such sale to or combination with a vendor with whom we do not currently have a commercial relationship or whose products we do not sell, could have an adverse impact on our business, results of operations or cash flows.

Our sales are dependent on continued innovations in hardware, software and services offerings by our vendor partners and the competitiveness of their offerings, and our ability to partner with new and emerging technology providers.

The technology industry is characterized by rapid innovation and the frequent introduction of new and enhanced hardware, software and services offerings, such as cloud-based solutions, including Software as a Service (“SaaS”), Infrastructure as a Service (“IaaS”) and Platform as a Service (“PaaS”), and the Internet of Things (“IoT”). We have been and will continue to be dependent on innovations in hardware, software and services offerings, as well as the acceptance of those innovations by customers. Also, customers may delay spending while they evaluate new technologies. A decrease in the rate of innovation, or the lack of acceptance of innovations or delays in technology spending by customers, could have an adverse effect on our business, results of operations or cash flows.

In addition, if we are unable to keep up with changes in technology and new hardware, software and services offerings, for example by providing the appropriate training to our account managers, sales technology specialists and engineers to enable them to effectively sell and deliver such new offerings to customers, our business, results of operations or cash flows could be adversely affected.

We also are dependent upon our vendor partners for the development and marketing of hardware, software and services to compete effectively with hardware, software and services of vendors whose products and services we do not currently offer or that we are not authorized to offer in one or more customer channels. In addition, our success is dependent on our ability to develop relationships with and sell hardware, software and services from new emerging vendors and vendors that we have not historically represented in the marketplace. To the extent that a vendor’s offering that is highly in demand is not available to us for resale in one or more customer channels, and there is not a competitive offering from another vendor that we are authorized to sell in such customer channels, or we are unable to develop relationships with new technology providers or companies that we have not historically represented, our business, results of operations or cash flows could be adversely impacted.

Substantial competition could reduce our market share and significantly harm our financial performance.

Our current competition includes:

We expect the competitive landscape to continue to evolve as new technologies are developed, such as cloud-based solutions, hyper-converged infrastructure and embedded software solutions. While innovation can help our business as it creates new offerings for us to sell, it can also disrupt our business model and create new and stronger competitors. For instance, while cloud-based solutions present an opportunity for us, cloud-based solutions and technologies that deliver technology solutions as a service could increase the amount of sales directly to customers rather than through solutions providers like us, or could reduce the amount of hardware we sell. In addition, some of our hardware and software vendor partners sell, and could intensify their efforts to sell, their products directly to our customers. Moreover, traditional OEMs have increased their services capabilities through mergers and acquisitions with service providers, which could potentially increase competition in the market to provide comprehensive technology solutions to customers. If we are unable to effectively respond to the evolving competitive landscape, our business, results of operations or cash flows could be adversely impacted.

We focus on offering a high level of service to gain new customers and retain existing customers. To the extent we face increased competition to gain and retain customers, we may be required to reduce prices, increase advertising expenditures or take other actions which could adversely affect our business, results of operations or cash flows. Additionally, some of our competitors may reduce their prices in an attempt to stimulate sales, which may require us to reduce prices. This would require us to sell a greater number of products to achieve the same level of Net sales and Gross profit. If such a reduction in prices occurs and we are unable to attract new customers and sell increased quantities of products, our sales growth and profitability could be adversely affected.

The success of our business depends on the continuing development, maintenance and operation of our information technology systems.

Our success is dependent on the accuracy, proper utilization and continuing development of our information technology systems, including our business systems, such as our sales, customer management, financial and accounting, marketing, purchasing, warehouse management, e-commerce and mobile systems, as well as our operational platforms, including voice and data networks and power systems. The quality and our utilization of the information generated by our information technology systems, and our success in implementing new systems and upgrades, affects, among other things, our ability to:

The integrity of our information technology systems is vulnerable to disruption due to forces beyond our control. While we have taken steps to protect our information technology systems from a variety of threats, including computer viruses, malware, phishing, social engineering, unauthorized access and other malicious attacks, both internal and external, and human error, there can be no guarantee that those steps will be effective. Furthermore, although we have redundant systems at a separate location to back up our primary systems, there can be no assurance that these redundant systems will operate properly if and when required. Any disruption to or infiltration of our information technology systems could significantly harm our business and results of operations.

Breaches of data security could adversely impact our business.

Our business involves the storage and transmission of proprietary information and sensitive or confidential data, including personal information of coworkers, customers and others. In addition, we operate data centers for our customers that host their technology infrastructure and may store and transmit both business-critical data and confidential information. In connection with our services business, some of our coworkers also have access to our customers’ confidential data and other information. We have privacy and data security policies in place that are designed to prevent security breaches; however, as newer technologies evolve,

we could be exposed to increased risk of breaches in security. Breaches in security could expose us, our customers or other individuals to a risk of public disclosure, loss or misuse of this information, resulting in legal claims or proceedings, liability or regulatory penalties under laws protecting the privacy of personal information, as well as the loss of existing or potential customers and damage to our brand and reputation. In addition, the cost and operational consequences of implementing further data protection measures could be significant. Such breaches, costs and consequences could adversely affect our business, results of operations or cash flows.

The failure to comply with our public sector contracts or applicable laws and regulations could result in, among other things, termination, fines or other liabilities, and changes in procurement regulations could adversely impact our business, results of operations or cash flows.

Revenues from our public sector customers are derived from sales to governmental entities, educational institutions and healthcare customers, through various contracts and open market sales of products and services. Sales to public sector customers are highly regulated. Noncompliance with contract provisions, government procurement regulations or other applicable laws or regulations (including the False Claims Act and the Medicare and Medicaid Anti-Kickback Statute or similar laws of the jurisdictions for our business activities outside of the United States) could result in civil, criminal and administrative liability, including substantial monetary fines or damages, termination of government contracts or other public sector customer contracts, and suspension, debarment or ineligibility from doing business with governmental entities or other customers in the public sector. In addition, contracts in the public sector are generally terminable at any time for convenience of the contracting agency or group purchasing organization (“GPO”) or upon default. Furthermore, our inability to enter into or retain contracts with GPOs may threaten our ability to sell to customers in those GPOs and compete effectively. The effect of any of these possible actions could adversely affect our business, results of operations or cash flows. In addition, the adoption of new or modified procurement regulations and other requirements may increase our compliance costs and reduce our gross margins, which could have a negative effect on our business, results of operations or cash flows.

If we fail to provide high-quality services to our customers, or if our third-party service providers fail to provide high-quality services to our customers, our reputation, business, results of operations or cash flows could be adversely affected.

Our service offerings include field services, managed services, warranties, configuration services, partner services and telecom services. Additionally, we deliver and manage mission critical software, systems and network solutions for our customers. We also offer certain services, such as implementation and installation services and repair services, to our customers through various third-party service providers engaged to perform these services on our behalf. If we or our third-party service providers fail to provide high-quality services to our customers or such services result in a disruption of our customers’ businesses, this could, among other things, result in legal claims and proceedings and liability. Moreover, as we expand our services and solutions business, we may be exposed to additional operational, regulatory and other risks. We also could incur liability for failure to comply with the rules and regulations applicable to the new services and solutions we provide to our customers. If any of the foregoing were to occur, our reputation with our customers, our brand and our business, results of operations or cash flows could be adversely affected.

If we lose any of our key personnel, or are unable to attract and retain the talent required for our business, our business could be disrupted and our financial performance could suffer.

Our success is heavily dependent upon our ability to attract, develop, engage and retain key personnel to manage and grow our business, including our key executive, management, sales, services and technical coworkers.

Our future success will depend to a significant extent on the efforts of Thomas E. Richards, our Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, as well as the continued service and support of our other executive officers. Our future success also will depend on our ability to retain and motivate our customer-facing coworkers, who have been given critical CDW knowledge regarding, and the opportunity to develop strong relationships with, many of our customers. In addition, as we seek to expand our offerings of value-added services and solutions, our success will even more heavily depend on attracting and retaining highly skilled technology specialists and engineers, for whom the market is extremely competitive.

Our inability to attract, develop, engage and retain key personnel could have an adverse effect on our relationships with our vendor partners and customers and adversely affect our ability to expand our offerings of value-added services and solutions. Moreover, our inability to train our sales, services and technical personnel effectively to meet the rapidly changing technology needs of our customers could cause a decrease in the overall quality and efficiency of such personnel. Such consequences could adversely affect our business, results of operations or cash flows.

The interruption of the flow of products from suppliers could disrupt our supply chain.

While we purchase our products primarily in the markets we serve (for example, products for US customers are sourced in the US), our vendor partners manufacture or purchase a significant portion of the products we sell outside of the US, primarily in Asia. Political, social or economic instability in Asia, or in other regions in which our vendor partners purchase or manufacture the products we sell, could cause disruptions in trade, including exports to the US. Other events that could also cause disruptions to our supply chain include:

We cannot predict whether the countries in which the products we sell are purchased or manufactured, or may be purchased or manufactured in the future, will be subject to new or additional trade restrictions or sanctions imposed by the US or foreign governments, including the likelihood, type or effect of any such restrictions. Trade restrictions, including new or increased tariffs or quotas, embargoes, sanctions, safeguards and customs restrictions against the products we sell, as well as foreign labor strikes and work stoppages or boycotts, could increase the cost or reduce the supply of product available to us and adversely affect our business, results of operations or cash flows. In addition, our exports are subject to regulations, some of which may be inconsistent, and noncompliance with these requirements could have a negative effect on our business, results of operations or cash flows.

A natural disaster or other adverse occurrence at one of our primary facilities or customer data centers could damage our business.

We have two warehouse and distribution facilities in the United States and one in the United Kingdom. If the warehouse and distribution equipment at one of our distribution centers were to be seriously damaged by a natural disaster or other adverse occurrence, we could utilize another distribution center or third-party distributors to ship products to our customers. However, this may not be sufficient to avoid interruptions in our service and may not enable us to meet all of the needs of our customers and would cause us to incur incremental operating costs. In addition, we operate three customer data centers and numerous sales offices which may contain both business-critical data and confidential information of our customers. A natural disaster or other adverse occurrence at any of the customer data centers or at any of our major sales offices could negatively impact our business, results of operations or cash flows.

We are heavily dependent on commercial delivery services.

We generally ship hardware products to our customers by FedEx, United Parcel Service and other commercial delivery services and invoice customers for delivery charges. If we are unable to pass on to our customers future increases in the cost of commercial delivery services, our profitability could be adversely affected. Additionally, strikes, inclement weather, natural disasters or other service interruptions by such shippers could adversely affect our ability to deliver products on a timely basis.

We are exposed to accounts receivable and inventory risks.

We extend credit to our customers for a significant portion of our Net sales, typically on 30-day payment terms. We are subject to the risk that our customers may not pay for the products they have purchased, or may pay at a slower rate than we have historically experienced, the risk of which is heightened during periods of economic downturn or uncertainty or, in the case of public sector customers, during periods of budget constraints.

We are also exposed to inventory risks as a result of the rapid technological changes that affect the market and pricing for the products we sell. We seek to minimize our inventory exposure through a variety of inventory management procedures and policies, including our rapid-turn inventory model, as well as vendor price protection and product return programs. However, if we were unable to maintain our rapid-turn inventory model, if there were unforeseen product developments that created more rapid obsolescence or if our vendor partners were to change their terms and conditions, our inventory risks could increase. We also from time to time take advantage of cost savings associated with certain opportunistic bulk inventory purchases offered by our vendor partners or we may decide to carry high inventory levels of certain products that have limited or no return privileges due to customer demand or request. These bulk purchases could increase our exposure to inventory obsolescence.

We could be exposed to additional risks if we continue to make strategic investments or acquisitions or enter into alliances.

We may continue to pursue transactions, including strategic investments, acquisitions or alliances, in an effort to extend or complement our existing business. These types of transactions involve numerous business risks, including finding suitable transaction partners and negotiating terms that are acceptable to us, the diversion of management’s attention from other business concerns, extending our product or service offerings into areas in which we have limited experience, entering into new geographic markets, the potential loss of key coworkers or business relationships and successfully integrating acquired businesses, any of which could adversely affect our operations.

In addition, our financial results could be adversely affected by financial adjustments required by accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America (“GAAP”) in connection with these types of transactions where significant goodwill or intangible assets are recorded. To the extent the value of goodwill or identifiable intangible assets with indefinite lives becomes impaired, we may be required to incur material charges relating to the impairment of those assets.

Our future operating results may fluctuate significantly.

We may experience significant variations in our future quarterly results of operations. These fluctuations may cause the market price of our common stock to be volatile and may result from many factors, including the condition of the technology industry in general, shifts in demand and pricing for hardware, software and services and the introduction of new products or upgrades.

Our operating results are also highly dependent on our level of gross profit as a percentage of Net sales. Our gross profit percentage fluctuates due to numerous factors, some of which may be outside of our control, including general macroeconomic conditions; pricing pressures; changes in product costs from our vendor partners; the availability of price protection, purchase discounts and incentive programs from our vendor partners; changes in product, order size and customer mix; the risk of some items in our inventory becoming obsolete; increases in delivery costs that we cannot pass on to customers; and general market and competitive conditions.

In addition, our cost structure is based, in part, on anticipated sales and gross margins. Therefore, we may not be able to adjust our cost structure quickly enough to compensate for any unexpected sales or gross margin shortfall, and any such inability could have an adverse effect on our business, results of operations or cash flows.

Fluctuations in foreign currency have an effect on our reported results of operations.

Our exposure to fluctuations in foreign currency rates results primarily from the translation exposure associated with the preparation of our Consolidated Financial Statements. While our Consolidated Financial Statements are reported in US dollars, the financial statements of our subsidiaries outside the US are prepared using the local currency as the functional currency and translated into US dollars. As a result, fluctuations in the exchange rate of the US dollar relative to the local currencies of our international subsidiaries, particularly the British pound and the Canadian dollar, could cause fluctuations in our reported results of operations. We also have foreign currency exposure to the extent sales and purchases are not denominated in a subsidiary’s functional currency, which could have an adverse effect on our business, results of operations or cash flows.

We are exposed to risks from legal proceedings and audits.

We are party to various legal proceedings that arise in the ordinary course of our business, which include commercial, employment, tort and other litigation.

We are subject to intellectual property infringement claims against us in the ordinary course of our business, either because of the products and services we sell or the business systems and processes we use to sell such products and services, in the form of cease-and-desist letters, licensing inquiries, lawsuits and other communications and demands. In our industry, such intellectual property claims have become more frequent as the complexity of technological products and the intensity of competition in our industry have increased. Increasingly, many of these assertions are brought by non-practicing entities whose principal business model is to secure patent licensing revenue, but we may also be subject to demands from inventors, competitors or other patent holders who may seek licensing revenue, lost profits and/or an injunction preventing us from engaging in certain activities, including selling certain products or services.

We also are subject to proceedings, investigations and audits by federal, state, international, national, provincial and local authorities, including because of our significant sales to governmental entities. We also are subject to audits by various vendor partners and large customers, including government agencies, relating to purchases and sales under various contracts. In addition, we are subject to indemnification claims under various contracts.

Current and future litigation, infringement claims, governmental proceedings and investigations, audits or indemnification claims that we face, including the SEC’s investigation of our vendor partner program incentives, may result in substantial costs and expenses and significantly divert the attention of our management regardless of the outcome. In addition, these matters could lead to increased costs or interruptions of our normal business operations. Litigation, infringement claims, governmental proceedings and investigations, audits or indemnification claims involve uncertainties and the eventual outcome of any such matter could adversely affect our business, results of operations or cash flows.

Failure to comply with complex and evolving US and foreign laws and regulations applicable to our operations could adversely impact our business, results of operations or cash flows.

Our operations are subject to numerous complex US and foreign laws and regulations in a number of areas including areas of labor and employment, advertising, e-commerce, tax, import and export requirements, anti-corruption, data privacy requirements, anti-competition, and environmental, health, and safety. Compliance with these laws, regulations and similar requirements may be onerous and expensive, and they are evolving and may be inconsistent from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, further increasing the cost of compliance and doing business, and the risk of noncompliance. We have implemented policies and procedures designed to help ensure compliance with applicable laws and regulations, but there can be no guarantee against coworkers, contractors or agents violating such laws and regulations or our policies and procedures. As a public company, we also are subject to increasingly complex public disclosure, corporate governance and accounting requirements that increase compliance costs and require significant management focus.

We have significant deferred cancellation of debt income.

As a result of a 2009 debt modification, we realized $396 million of cancellation of debt income (“CODI”). We made an election under Code Section 108(i) to defer this CODI from taxable income, pursuant to which we are also required to defer certain original issue discount (“OID”) deductions as they accrue. As of December 31, 2013, we had deferred approximately $115 million of OID deductions. Starting in 2014, we were required to include the deferred CODI and the deferred OID into taxable income ratably over a five-year period ending in 2018. Because we have more CODI than the aggregate of our deferred OID on the relevant remaining debt instruments, we will have a future cash tax liability associated with our significant deferred CODI. We have reflected the associated cash tax liability in our deferred taxes for financial accounting purposes.

All of our deferred CODI will be accelerated into current taxable income if, prior to 2018, we engage in a so-called “impairment transaction” and the gross value of our assets immediately afterward is less than 110% of the sum of our total liabilities and the tax on the net amount of our deferred CODI and OID (the “110% test”) as determined under the applicable Treasury Regulations. An “impairment transaction” is any transaction that impairs our ability to pay the tax on our deferred CODI, and includes dividends or distributions with respect to our equity and charitable contributions, in each case in a manner that is not consistent with our historical practice within the meaning of the applicable Treasury Regulations.

Prior to 2018, our willingness to pay dividends or make distributions with respect to our equity could be adversely affected if, at the time, we do not meet the 110% test and, as a result, the payment of a dividend or the making of a distribution would accelerate the tax payable with respect to our deferred CODI. We believe that, based on our interpretation of applicable Treasury Regulations, the gross value of our assets exceeds 110% of the sum of our total liabilities and the tax on the net amount of our deferred CODI and OID as of the filing date of this Annual Report on Form 10-K. However, we cannot assure you that this will continue to be true in the future.

Risks Related to Our Indebtedness

We have a substantial amount of indebtedness, which could have important consequences to our business.

We have a substantial amount of indebtedness. As of December 31, 2016 , we had $3.2 billion of total long-term debt outstanding, as defined by GAAP, and $580 million of obligations outstanding under our inventory financing agreements, and the ability to borrow an additional $716 million under our senior secured asset-based revolving credit loan facility (the “Revolving Loan”) and an additional £ 50 million ( $62 million ) under our CDW UK revolving credit and term loan facility (“CDW UK Credit Facility”). Our substantial indebtedness could have important consequences, including the following:

Restrictive covenants under our senior credit facilities and, to a lesser degree, our indentures may adversely affect our operations and liquidity.

Our senior credit facilities and, to a lesser degree, our indentures contain, and any future indebtedness of ours may contain, various covenants that limit our ability to, among other things:

As a result of these covenants, we are limited in the manner in which we conduct our business and we may be unable to engage in favorable business activities or finance future operations or capital needs. A breach of any of these covenants or any of the other restrictive covenants would result in a default under our senior credit facilities. Upon the occurrence of an event of default under our senior credit facilities, the lenders:

The acceleration of amounts outstanding under our senior credit facilities would likely trigger an event of default under our existing indentures.

If we were unable to repay those amounts, the lenders under our senior credit facilities could proceed against the collateral granted to them to secure our borrowings thereunder. We have pledged a significant portion of our assets as collateral under our senior credit facilities. If the lenders under our senior credit facilities accelerate the repayment of borrowings, we cannot assure you that we will have sufficient assets to repay our senior credit facilities and our other indebtedness or the ability to borrow sufficient funds to refinance such indebtedness. Even if we were able to obtain new financing, it may not be on commercially reasonable terms, or terms that are acceptable to us.

In addition, under our Revolving Loan, we are permitted to borrow an aggregate amount of up to $1,250 million. However, our ability to borrow under our Revolving Loan is limited by a borrowing base and a liquidity condition. The borrowing base at any time equals the sum of up to 85% of CDW LLC and its subsidiary guarantors’ eligible accounts receivable (net of accounts

reserves) (up to 30% of such eligible accounts receivable which can consist of federal government accounts receivable) plus the lesser of (i) 75% of CDW LLC and its subsidiary guarantors’ eligible inventory (valued at cost and net of inventory reserves) and (ii) the product of 85% multiplied by the net orderly liquidation value percentage multiplied by eligible inventory (valued at cost and net of inventory reserves), less reserves (other than accounts reserves and inventory reserves). The borrowing base in effect as of December 31, 2016 was $1,479 million and, therefore, did not restrict our ability to borrow under our Revolving Loan as of that date.

Our ability to borrow under our Revolving Loan is also limited by a minimum liquidity condition, which provides that, if excess cash availability is less than the lesser of (i) $125 million and (ii) the greater of (A) 10% of the borrowing base and (B) $100 million, the lenders are not required to lend any additional amounts under our Revolving Loan unless the consolidated fixed charge coverage ratio (as defined in the credit agreement for our Revolving Loan) is at least 1.0 to 1.0. Moreover, our Revolving Loan provides discretion to the agent bank acting on behalf of the lenders to impose additional availability reserves, which could materially impair the amount of borrowings that would otherwise be available to us. We cannot assure you that the agent bank will not impose such reserves or, were it to do so, that the resulting impact of this action would not materially and adversely impair our liquidity.

We will be required to generate sufficient cash to service our indebtedness and, if not successful, we may be forced to take other actions to satisfy our obligations under our indebtedness.

Our ability to make scheduled payments on or to refinance our debt obligations depends on our financial and operating performance, which is subject to prevailing economic and competitive conditions and to certain financial, business and other factors beyond our control. Our outstanding long-term debt will impose significant cash interest payment obligations on us and, accordingly, we will have to generate significant cash flow from operating activities to fund our debt service obligations. We cannot assure you that we will maintain a level of cash flows from operating activities sufficient to permit us to pay the principal, premium, if any, and interest on our indebtedness. See “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations-Liquidity and Capital Resources” included elsewhere in this report.

If our cash flows and capital resources are insufficient to fund our debt service obligations, we may be forced to reduce or delay capital expenditures, sell assets or operations, seek additional debt or equity capital, restructure or refinance our indebtedness, or revise or delay our strategic plan. We cannot assure you that we would be able to take any of these actions, that these actions would be successful and permit us to meet our scheduled debt service obligations or satisfy our capital requirements, or that these actions would be permitted under the terms of our existing or future debt agreements, including our senior credit facilities and indentures. In the absence of such operating results and resources, we could face substantial liquidity problems and might be required to dispose of material assets or operations to meet our debt service and other obligations. Our senior credit facilities restrict our ability to dispose of assets and use the proceeds from the disposition. We may not be able to consummate those dispositions or to obtain the proceeds which we could realize from them and these proceeds may not be adequate to meet any debt service obligations then due.

If we cannot make scheduled payments on our debt, we will be in default and, as a result:

Despite our indebtedness levels, we and our subsidiaries may be able to incur substantially more debt, including secured debt. This could further increase the risks associated with our leverage.

We and our subsidiaries may be able to incur substantial additional indebtedness in the future. The terms of our senior credit facilities and indentures do not fully prohibit us or our subsidiaries from doing so. To the extent that we incur additional indebtedness, the risks associated with our substantial indebtedness described above, including our possible inability to service our debt, will increase. As of December 31, 2016 , we had $716 million available for additional borrowing under our Revolving Loan after taking into account borrowing base limitations (net of $1 million of issued and undrawn letters of credit and $580 million of reserves related to our floorplan sub-facility) and an additional £ 50 million ( $62 million ) available under our CDW UK Credit Facility.

Variable rate indebtedness subjects us to interest rate risk, which could cause our debt service obligations to increase significantly.

Certain of our borrowings, primarily borrowings under our senior credit facilities, are at variable rates of interest and expose us to interest rate risk. As of December 31, 2016 , we had $1,552 million of variable rate debt outstanding, $1,483 million of which is subject to a 0.75% LIBOR floor. If interest rates increase above 0.75% per annum, our debt service obligations on the variable rate indebtedness would increase even though the amount borrowed remained the same, and our net income would decrease. Although we have entered into interest rate cap agreements on our term loan facility to reduce interest rate volatility, we cannot assure you we will be able to enter into interest rate cap agreements in the future on acceptable terms or that such caps or the caps we have in place now will be effective.

Risks Related to Ownership of Our Common Stock

Our common stock price may be volatile and may decline regardless of our operating performance, and holders of our common stock could lose a significant portion of their investment.

The market price for our common stock may be volatile. Our stockholders may not be able to resell their shares of common stock at or above the price at which they purchased such shares, due to fluctuations in the market price of our common stock, which may be caused by a number of factors, many of which we cannot control, including the risk factors described in this Annual Report on Form 10-K and the following:

In addition, the stock markets have experienced extreme price and volume fluctuations that have affected and continue to affect the market prices of equity securities of many companies, including companies in our industry. In the past, securities class action litigation has followed periods of market volatility. If we were involved in securities litigation, we could incur substantial costs, and our resources and the attention of management could be diverted from our business.

In the future, we may also issue our securities in connection with investments or acquisitions. The number of shares of our common stock issued in connection with an investment or acquisition could constitute a material portion of our then-outstanding shares of our common stock and depress our stock price.

Anti-takeover provisions in our charter documents and Delaware law might discourage or delay acquisition attempts for us that you might consider favorable.

Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation and amended and restated bylaws contain provisions that may make the acquisition of the Company more difficult without the approval of our Board of Directors. These provisions:

Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation also contains a provision that provides us with protections similar to Section 203 of the Delaware General Corporation Law, and will prevent us from engaging in a business combination with a person who acquires at least 15% of our common stock for a period of three years from the date such person acquired such common stock, unless board or stockholder approval is obtained prior to the acquisition. These anti-takeover provisions and other provisions under Delaware law could discourage, delay or prevent a transaction involving a change in control of the Company, even if doing so would benefit our stockholders. These provisions could also discourage proxy contests and make it more difficult for our stockholders to elect directors of their choosing and to cause us to take other corporate actions our stockholders desire.

We cannot assure you that we will continue to pay dividends on our common stock or repurchase any of our common stock under our share repurchase program, and our indebtedness and certain tax considerations could limit our ability to continue to pay dividends on, or make share repurchases of, our common stock. If we do not continue to pay dividends, you may not receive any return on investment unless you are able to sell your common stock for a price greater than your purchase price.

We expect to continue to pay a cash dividend on our common stock, currently at the rate of $0.16 per share per quarter, or $0.64 per share per annum. However, any determination to pay dividends in the future will be at the discretion of our Board of Directors. Any determination to pay dividends on, or repurchase, shares of our common stock in the future will depend upon our results of operations, financial condition, business prospects, capital requirements, contractual restrictions, any potential indebtedness we may incur, restrictions imposed by applicable law, tax considerations and other factors our Board of Directors deems relevant. In addition, our ability to pay dividends on, or repurchase, shares of our common stock will be limited by restrictions on our ability to pay dividends or make distributions to our stockholders and on the ability of our subsidiaries to pay dividends or make distributions to us, in each case, under the terms of our current and any future agreements governing our indebtedness. There can be no assurance that we will continue to pay a dividend at the current rate or at all or that we will repurchase shares of our common stock. If we do not pay dividends in the future, realization of a gain on your investment will depend entirely on the appreciation of the price of our common stock, which may never occur. See “--Risks Related to Our Business--We have significant deferred cancellation of debt income” for a discussion of certain tax considerations that could affect our willingness to pay dividends in the future .

We are a holding company and rely on dividends, distributions and other payments, advances and transfers of funds from our subsidiaries to meet our obligations.

We are a holding company that does not conduct any business operations of our own. As a result, we are largely dependent upon cash dividends and distributions and other transfers from our subsidiaries to meet our obligations. The agreements governing the indebtedness of our subsidiaries impose restrictions on our subsidiaries’ ability to pay dividends or other distributions to us. The deterioration of the earnings from, or other available assets of, our subsidiaries for any reason could also limit or impair their ability to pay dividends or other distributions to us.

Item 1B. Unresolved Staff Comments

None.

Item 2. Properties

As of December 31, 2016 , we owned or leased a total of 2.1 million square feet of space, primarily in the US, Canada and United Kingdom. We own two properties: a combined office and a 442,000 square foot distribution center in Vernon Hills, Illinois and a 513,000 square foot distribution center in North Las Vegas, Nevada. In addition, we conduct sales, services and administrative activities in various leased locations primarily in the US, Canada and United Kingdom, including data centers in Madison, Wisconsin, Minneapolis, Minnesota and the United Kingdom.

We believe our facilities are well maintained, suitable for our business and occupy sufficient space to meet our operating needs. As part of our normal business, we regularly evaluate sales center performance and site suitability. Leases covering our currently occupied leased properties expire at varying dates, generally within the next ten years. We anticipate no difficulty in retaining occupancy through lease renewals, month-to-month occupancy or replacing the leased properties with equivalent properties. We believe that suitable additional or substitute leased properties will be available as required.

Item 3. Legal Proceedings

We are party to various legal proceedings that arise in the ordinary course of our business, which include commercial, intellectual property, employment, tort and other litigation matters. We are also subject to audit by federal, state, international, national, provincial and local authorities, and by various partners, group purchasing organizations and customers, including government agencies, relating to purchases and sales under various contracts. In addition, we are subject to indemnification claims under various contracts. From time to time, certain of our customers file voluntary petitions for reorganization or liquidation under the US bankruptcy laws or similar laws of the jurisdictions for our business activities outside of the United States. In such cases,

certain pre-petition payments received by us could be considered preference items and subject to return to the bankruptcy administrator.

On October 29, 2015, we learned of an investigation by the SEC of our vendor partner program incentives. The SEC’s investigation is ongoing, and we are continuing to cooperate with the SEC in this matter.

As of December 31, 2016 , we do not believe that there is a reasonable possibility that any material loss exceeding the amounts already recognized for these proceedings and matters, if any, has been incurred. However, the ultimate resolutions of these proceedings and matters are inherently unpredictable. As such, our financial condition and results of operations could be adversely affected in any particular period by the unfavorable resolution of one or more of these proceedings or matters.

Item 4. Mine Safety Disclosures

Thomas E. Richards serves as our Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer and as a member of our board of directors. Mr. Richards has served as our President and Chief Executive Officer since October 2011 and was named Chairman in January 2013. From 2009 to 2011, Mr. Richards served as our President and Chief Operating Officer. Prior to joining CDW, Mr. Richards held leadership positions with Qwest Communications International Inc. (“Qwest”), a broadband Internet-based communications company. From 2008 to 2009, he served as Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, where he was responsible for the day-to-day operation and performance of Qwest, and before assuming that role, was the Executive Vice President of the Business Markets Group from 2005 to 2008. Mr. Richards also has served as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Clear Communications Corporation and as Executive Vice President of Ameritech Corporation. Mr. Richards serves as a board member of The Northern Trust Corporation, Junior Achievement of Chicago, Rush University Medical Center and the University of Pittsburgh. Mr. Richards also is a member of the Economic Club of Chicago and the Executives’ Club of Chicago. Mr. Richards is a graduate of the University of Pittsburgh where he earned a bachelor’s degree and a graduate of Massachusetts Institute of Technology where he earned a Master of Science in Management as a Sloan Fellow.

Dennis G. Berger serves as our Senior Vice President and Chief Coworker Services Officer. Mr. Berger joined CDW in 2005 as Vice President-Coworker Services. In 2007, he was named Senior Vice President and Chief Coworker Services Officer. Mr. Berger is responsible for leading CDW’s programs in coworker learning and development, benefits, compensation, performance management, coworker relations and talent acquisition. Prior to joining CDW, he served as Vice President of Human Resources at PepsiAmericas, a beverage company, from 2002 to 2005. Mr. Berger has also held human resources positions of increasing responsibility at Pepsi Bottling Group, Inc., Pepsico, Inc. and GTE Corporation. Mr. Berger serves on the board of directors of Glenwood Academy, the Anti-Defamation League of Chicago and Skills for Chicagoland’s Future. Mr. Berger is a graduate of Northeastern University where he earned a bachelor’s degree and a graduate of John M. Olin School of Business at Washington University in St. Louis where he earned a Master of Business Administration.

Neal J. Campbell serves as our Senior Vice President of Strategic Solutions and Services, and is responsible for CDW’s technology solutions teams focusing on cloud, mobility, security, collaboration, data center and services. Mr. Campbell served as Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer from 2011 to August 2016. Prior to joining CDW in 2011, Mr. Campbell served as Chief Executive Officer of TrafficCast, a provider of real-time and predictive traffic information to Google, Yahoo and others from 2008 to 2011. From 2006 to 2008, he served as Executive Vice President and General Manager-Strategic Marketing

and Next Generation Products for ISCO International, a manufacturer of wireless telecommunications components. Additionally, Mr. Campbell also spent 17 years with Motorola, most recently as Vice President and General Manager, GSM Portfolio Marketing and Planning for the company’s mobile device business. He currently serves as a board member of Junior Achievement of Chicago, and is on the Executive Advisory Council of Bradley University. Mr. Campbell is a graduate of Bradley University where he earned a bachelor’s degree and a graduate of Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management where he earned a Master of Business Administration.

Mark C. Chong serves as our Senior Vice President of Strategy and Marketing. Mr. Chong joined CDW in November 2016, and is responsible for the Company’s corporate strategy, business development and marketing efforts, including analytics and insights; brand, advertising and sponsorships; marketing operations and execution; and corporate communications. Prior to joining CDW, Mr. Chong served as a Partner in the Chicago office of Bain & Company, a global management consulting firm (“Bain”), and as a leader in the Technology, Media and Telecom practice as well as the Customer Strategy and Marketing and Mergers & Acquisition practice areas. Mr. Chong was with Bain from 1999 to 2003, and then again from 2007 to 2016. From 2003 to 2007, Mr. Chong served as Director of Corporate Strategy and then Vice President of Strategy and Marketing for the Aerospace Business of Honeywell, Intl. Mr. Chong is a graduate of the University of Chicago where he earned a bachelor’s degree and a graduate of University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School where he earned a Master of Business Administration.

Christina M. Corley serves as our Senior Vice President - Corporate Sales and is responsible for managing all aspects of our corporate sales force, including sales force strategy, structure, goals, operations, revenue generation and training and development. Prior to joining CDW in 2011, Ms. Corley served as President and Chief Operating Officer of Zones, Inc., a provider of IT products and solutions, from 2006 to 2011. She served as Executive Vice President of Purchasing and Operations for Zones, Inc. from 2005 to 2006. She served as President of Corporate PC Source (“CPCS”), a wholly owned subsidiary of Zones, Inc., from 2003 to 2005. Prior to its acquisition by Zones, Inc., Ms. Corley served as Chief Executive Officer of CPCS from 1999 to 2003. Ms. Corley began her career in sales and marketing, holding various positions at IBM, Dataflex and VisionTek. She currently serves as a board member of the Boys and Girls Club of Chicago. Ms. Corley is a graduate of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign where she earned a bachelor’s degree and a graduate of Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management where she earned a Master of Business Administration in management and strategy.

Douglas E. Eckrote serves as our Senior Vice President of Small Business Sales and eCommerce and is responsible for managing all aspects of CDW’s Small Business Unit, including sales force strategy, structure, goals, operations, revenue generation and training and development, as well as the technical solutions and services and marketing functions specific to Small Business. Additionally, he oversees CDW’s eCommerce operations.  Mr. Eckrote joined CDW in 1989 as an account manager and quickly rose through the ranks. Since joining the company, he has served in a variety of management roles of increasing responsibility. Mr. Eckrote was appointed Director of Operations in 1996, Vice President of Operations in 1999, Senior Vice President of Purchasing in April 2001 and Senior Vice President of Purchasing and Operations in October 2001. He was promoted to Senior Vice President of Operations, Services and Canada in 2006 and in 2009 was appointed to the role of Senior Vice President of Strategic Solutions and Services. He was appointed to his current role in August 2016. Mr. Eckrote currently serves on the Board of Directors of The Northern Illinois Food Bank, the Board of Trustees of The Center for Enriched Living and the Board of Trustees of Westlake Christian Academy. Mr. Eckrote is a graduate of Purdue University where he earned a bachelor’s degree and a graduate of Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management where he earned an Executive Master of Business Administration.

Christine A. Leahy serves as our Senior Vice President - International, Chief Legal Officer and Corporate Secretary and is responsible for our international growth platform, including CDW Canada and CDW UK, CDW’s UK-based technology solutions provider with locations in Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia. In addition, she is responsible for the legal, corporate governance, enterprise risk management and compliance functions. Ms. Leahy joined CDW in 2002 as the Company’s first general counsel. Prior to that, Ms. Leahy served as a corporate partner in the Chicago office of Sidley Austin LLP where she specialized in mergers and acquisitions, strategic counseling, corporate governance and securities law. Ms. Leahy serves as Vice Chair of the board of trustees of Children’s Home and Aid. She also is a member of the Economic Club of Chicago and The Chicago Network. In addition, she is a founder and current sponsor of CDW's Women’s Opportunity Network, a business resource group dedicated to helping women advance and grow into tomorrow’s leaders. Ms. Leahy is a graduate of Brown University where she earned a bachelor’s degree and a graduate of Boston College Law School where she earned her Juris Doctor. She also completed the CEO Perspective and Women’s Director Development Programs at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management.

Christina V. Rother serves as our Senior Vice President - Public and Advanced Technology Sales and is responsible for managing all aspects of our public sector and advanced technology sales forces, including sales force strategy, structure, goals, operations, revenue generation and training and development. Ms. Rother joined CDW in 1991 as an account manager. In 2002, she was appointed Vice President for Education and State and Local Sales. In 2005, she was chosen to lead our newly formed healthcare sales team. Beginning in 2006, Ms. Rother has held various positions ranging from Group Vice President of CDW Government LLC, President of CDW Government LLC and Senior Vice President of Sales. In September 2011, Ms. Rother

assumed her current role as Senior Vice President of Public and Advanced Technology Sales. Prior to joining CDW, Ms. Rother held a number of sales positions with technology companies including Laser Computers and Price Electronics. Ms. Rother currently serves as chair of the board of directors of the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Illinois. Ms. Rother is a graduate of the University of Illinois at Chicago where she earned a bachelor’s degree.

Jonathan J. Stevens serves as our Senior Vice President - Operations and Chief Information Officer. Mr. Stevens joined CDW in 2001 as Vice President-Information Technology, was named Chief Information Officer in 2002 and Vice President-International and Chief Information Officer from 2005 until 2006. In 2007, he was named Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer and assumed his current role in 2009. Mr. Stevens is responsible for the strategic direction of our information technology. Additionally, he holds responsibility for our distribution centers, transportation, facilities, customer relations and operational excellence practices. Prior to joining CDW, Mr. Stevens served as regional technology director for Avanade, an international technology integration company formed through a joint venture between Microsoft and Accenture from 2000 to 2001. Prior to that, Mr. Stevens was a principal with Microsoft Consulting Services and led an information technology group for a corporate division of AT&T/NCR. He currently serves on the board of directors of SingleWire Software, LLC. Mr. Stevens is a graduate of the University of Dayton where he earned a bachelor’s degree.

Matthew A. Troka serves as our Senior Vice President - Product and Partner Management. Mr. Troka is responsible for managing our relationships with all of our vendor partners. In addition, he directs the day-to-day operations of our purchasing department. Mr. Troka joined CDW in 1992 as an account manager and became a sales manager in 1995. From 1998 to 2001, he served as Corporate Sales Director. From 2001 to 2004, Mr. Troka was Senior Director of Purchasing. From 2004 to 2006, Mr. Troka served as Vice President of Purchasing. From 2006 to 2011, Mr. Troka was Vice President of Product and Partner Management. In 2011, Mr. Troka was elected Senior Vice President of Product and Partner Management. Mr. Troka is a graduate of the University of Illinois where he earned a bachelor’s degree.

Ann E. Ziegler serves as our Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Prior to joining CDW in 2008, Ms. Ziegler spent 15 years at Sara Lee Corporation (“Sara Lee”), a global consumer goods company, in a number of executive roles including finance, mergers and acquisitions, strategy and general management positions in both US and international businesses. Most recently, from 2005 until 2008, Ms. Ziegler served as Chief Financial Officer and Senior Vice President of Administration for Sara Lee Food and Beverage. Prior to joining Sara Lee, Ms. Ziegler was a corporate attorney at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom. Ms. Ziegler serves on the boards of directors of Hanesbrands, Inc. and Groupon, Inc. and the board of governors of the Smart Museum of Art of the University of Chicago. Ms. Ziegler is a graduate of The College of William and Mary where she earned a bachelor’s degree and a graduate of the University of Chicago Law School where she earned her Juris Doctor.