Passing The Torch At TD Synnex: CRN In Depth

Hi, I'm Wade Millard and today I'm catching up with CRN's senior editor Joseph F. Kovar on CRN in depth, where we cover a big story happening now with the reporter who covered the news. Joe, today we're talking about leadership change at TD SYNNEX. Tell me about what partners need to know.

Okay, well first of all, the change hasn't happened yet. Rich Hume, the current CEO, is expected to stay on in that position until September 1st, at which point he set to retire. He said to be replaced by Patrick Zammit. Now, what's interesting about this is it's not a new story for TD SYNNEX. We've heard this story before when Rich Hume was brought into Tech Data (at the time, before the merger with SYNNEX it's Tech Data) when he was brought in to Tech Data in I think 2016. He came in as the Chief Operating Officer with the idea that if everything went according to plan, he would take over from Bob Dutkowsky as CEO. So that's what we're seeing with Patrick Zammit. But he's been a long-time TD SYNNEX employee in Europe, but he now is the Chief Operating Officer with the idea that if all goes well—and I don't see anything that would stop it—he will become the CEO in September. For partners, it's continuity. It's not going to be a big shock. Patrick Zammit will be bringing some ideas that he has, some things he's working on in Europe, such as their data center of excellence, which is aimed at helping provide partners better tools to work with their customers in all sorts of infrastructure and cloud situations. So he'll be bringing in some tools and things that he used in Europe, but let's face it, North America is still the biggest market for TD SYNNEX. So we're not going to see wholesale changes. Partners should expect continuity going forward.

What will you be looking forward to from TD SYNNEX as they navigate this ever-competitive distribution space?

Let's face it, distributors are not really—they're not at all like they used to be. It's a very high-tech business, very much aimed at supporting the partners: bringing the partners financing for the latest technologies, bringing them training, serving in a lot of cases to help with the deployment of new technologies, actually going out and helping them with their professional services. So distributors have very strong programs for the partners, and TD SYNNEX is no exception. So I don't expect a lot of changes once Patrick takes over. Now, he will bring a fresh set of eyes to TD SYNNEX given that his primary focus over the years has been in Europe. He was with Avnet prior, and Tech Data in Europe, and TD SYNNEX in Europe as well. So he's going to be bringing a fresh set of eyes to the company, but I don't expect wholesale changes. Distribution in general is changing all the time, but I don't think anything major is going to happen that would disrupt what's going on in the channel.

That's great insight. I think I keep hearing from distributors and partners: if you're only getting hardware from your distributor, you're kind of underutilizing them. Well, you're going out of business. Going out of business even. And Joe, I know your relationship with Rich goes back a ways. Tell me a little bit about how long you've known him.

I think I first met him in—I think it was 2008, might have been 2012. For some reason those two numbers stick in my brain. It was at an IBM PartnerWorld, and he had just started as IBM's General Manager for Global Business Partners. Business partners, of course, is IBM's term for solution providers. So he started that in 2008, so I think it was right after that he went to PartnerWorld where I met him at a PartnerWorld conference. Just happened to strike up a good relationship with him. In fact, I talked to him earlier this year. I actually had the t-shirt that I wore at the time at that IBM PartnerWorld t-shirt that I got at that conference when I talked to him. So that was kind of cool. That's an old t-shirt. I'm a packrat. So yeah, I've had a good long relationship with him. It was nice. We talked almost every quarter about the—well, we used the financials as the excuse for a Q&A, but then I would ask him all sorts of questions, try to catch up on the news at the time. It's the kind of thing that CEOs don't always spend time for, but I got them when we're talking about the financials, so I could ask him all those other questions like the competition. It's just been a long time talking with him, understanding the company, and of course any concerns that channel partners might have, I would also take the advantage of that to talk with them about as well.

Oh, that's excellent. And I'm sure will continue to enjoy that kind of relationship with the new and improved TD. And I'm sure you have a standing invitation to him to come out to the West Coast, right? The best coast. If he gets tired of all that terrible weather out east.

Yep, yep. So I am looking forward to continuing that same relationship with Patrick Zammit. I've talked to him already. Had a nice conversation with him on the day he was—or shortly after—oh no, it was the day after Rich unveiled his plan to retire. So we've already started that dialogue. Look forward to it more and to bringing more information to the channel about it.

That'll do it for this episode of In Depth. Joe, thank you so much for joining me. And to read more about distribution in the channel, be sure to read CRN.com.