TD Synnex CEO Rich Hume: ‘I Fought The Good Fight’

'The company is in great shape,' says TD Synnex CEO Rich Hume, who turns 65 in August and will retire effective September 1. ‘We've got a great leader in Patrick (Zammit) that'll come to the forefront. And I've completed my work.’

Architected A Distribution Powerhouse

TD Synnex CEO Rich Hume, the architect behind the Tech Data-Synnex merger three years ago that led to the creation of TD Synnex, told CRN he is ready to pass the CEO baton to incoming CEO Patrick Zammit.

“The company is in great shape,” said Hume, who turns 65 in August and will retire effective September 1. “We've got a great leader in Patrick that'll come to the forefront. And I’ve completed my work. I fought the good fight.”

Hume, who drastically altered the distribution landscape by masterminding the marriage of Tech Data and Synnex, said he considers that blockbuster deal the “biggest thing” he has done in his 40-plus years in the technology industry.

At the time, Tech Data was the No. 2 distributor by revenue in the world at $37.6 billion, and Synnex at $22.2 billion was the No. 3 distributor.

“I think that certainly was the biggest thing that I have done within my career,” said Hume reflecting on his 30-year-plus career at IBM as a channel leader and then his eight years at TD Synnex. “Some would say it was the biggest thing that happened within the IT distribution space. But most importantly, there was the benefit to customers and vendors as well our coworkers, because our coworkers have had an extended opportunity for growth because a bigger organizational unit breeds more opportunities.”

As he reflects on his legacy, Hume said his “proudest accomplishment” is the TD Synnex culture. He described it as a culture that is” agile, is trusting, is now one team and working together extremely well, and maniacally focused on customers, vendors, and growing our business moving forward.”

Hume said TD Synnex is committed to a ‘servant leadership’ culture. “The organization very much has bought into that approach,” he said. “It’s really resonating well. What warms my heart is, I feel like, as I exit out, is the company is in fantastic shape from a cultural perspective, from an overall business perspective, and from an investor perspective.”

Hume said Zammit’s reputation as a leader in the IT channel, along with his in-depth understanding of the distribution business model, made him the ideal candidate to lead TD Synnex into the future.

“I know that Patrick is completely aligned with our strategic framework: how to get things done, where to focus, where to put emphasis or not,” said Hume. “He'll bring his own tailored approach to that. And I mean this sincerely. A great succession is one where the person who’s sort of transitioning out can feel really good that the person coming in is better than they are.”

Hume, who will remain on the TD Synnex board of directors, said he is not going to “provide too many points of view” to Zammit once he steps down.

“I’ll use the proverbial, ‘Handing the keys over, call me if you need me,’” he told CRN. “But certainly, I'll be watching from afar, and I know that I'll be watching the great success of the 23,000-plus people in the organization across the globe.”

Below is an excerpt from the conversation with Hume.

Any immediate plans for once you step down as CEO of TD Synnex?

The advice I get from a professional perspective is, don’t make any commitments six months out—certainly, I would never work full time again—but don't make any commitments until you have a chance to catch a breather and get some perspective. So that will be my intention. And then personally—it’s a boring answer because you hear it a lot—I’ll be spending a lot more time with family and friends, and probably moving to the northeast for the summer. I haven’t spent meaningful time in the northeast in a while, so we'll spend a month and a half up there. The offseason in Florida is starting to become our favorite time in Florida because the in-seasons are getting quite busy.

You don't want to make any commitments, but you are committed to not working full time.

Yeah, that’s right. So somewhere down the road, getting on another board would be interesting. I have the privilege of serving on the Allstate insurance board, and of course the TD Synnex board has asked me to stay on for a period of time, which I'm happy to do, perhaps provide Patrick advice if he needs any advice, and kind of go from there.

Was the decision to step down as CEO triggered by any particular event?

Yes, my age. I had always intended to retire at 60. But it kept slipping and slipping and slipping out. I’m going to be 65 in August. So it was really my strong desire to retire. And I think that I'm ready for that. The company is in great shape. We've got a great leader in Patrick that’ll come to the forefront. And I've completed my work. I fought the good fight.

What was behind the choice of Patrick Zammit (pictured above left) as TD Synnex’s CEO going forward? What was the thinking between you and the board?

Well, first of all, this was a board decision. The board goes through a very meaningful process around succession. And in the end, Patrick was the lead candidate from that whole process. But I think there's a couple of things that Patrick really differentiated himself on. First of all, he's got a reputation to be a great leader. Second, he's got a great reputation to be vendor- and customer-focused. Third, he clearly is a decisive individual who makes his decisions based on fact. Fourth, he develops great followership, meaning that folks who engage with him have a desire to really want to be on his team and work on his agenda. Those are not in any order. They’re the top-level thoughts as to why TD Synnex chose Patrick. And fifth, he has over 30 years in components distribution and IT distribution, so he understands the business model. And in addition to that, he comes with a pretty deep financial compass while still having decades of experience as a general manager as well.

During your tenure as head of TD Synnex, the biggest change you saw was the merger of Tech Data and Synnex to form TD Synnex. What else is part of the mark that you leave on TD Synnex going forward?

I joined Tech Data in 2016. And from the moment I joined, we quickly found ourselves in a conversation relative to our strategic future. I think it's fair to say back eight or eight-and-a-half years ago, we were known as a PC ecosystem provider primarily. We knew that our customers, as well as our value proposition and our financial model, would be challenged with that limited dimension. So we then pursued the acquisition of Avnet, which provided us with a pretty significant advanced solutions footprint globally. That was the first stage of really positioning Tech Data to be successful.

Was the decision to pursue Avnet made during your tenure? Or was that already in play when you joined?

Oh, I walked through the door on my first day. And the late (former Tech Data CEO) Bob Dutkowsky said to me, ‘We're doing an acquisition, and you're in charge of running it.’ It really happened almost that quickly. Bob had the foresight to know that we had to diversify Tech Data, but I certainly was a pretty integral part of completing that acquisition and getting it behind us. And then, of course, none of us foresaw us going private. I had the opportunity to take a public company, Tech Data, private with Apollo. And that was a fabulous experience. Those guys were really excellent professionals at what they do. And they're great partners to do business with. We did that during COVID. We announced the deal in November, closed the deal in July during the first year of COVID. And then I remember getting together with Dennis [Polk, former Synnex president and CEO] towards the end of the year. We were private for only 14 months, and then we were going to become a public company again.

When I think about it, it all made sense, building the advanced business with Tech Data, and then bringing together Synnex and Tech Data. We really had at the heart of it the focus on the needs of our customers and vendors. It was also a really good outcome for our investors as well. I think that certainly was the biggest thing that I have done within my career. Some would say it was the biggest thing that happened within the IT distribution space. But most importantly, there was the benefit to customers and vendors as well our coworkers, because our coworkers have had an extended opportunity for growth because a bigger organizational unit breeds more opportunities.

From a legacy perspective, my proudest accomplishment internally would be the culture that we've built, a culture that is agile, is trusting, is now one team and working together extremely well, and maniacally focused on customers, vendors, and growing our business moving forward. Internally, we call our leadership model ‘servant leadership.’ And the organization very much has bought into that approach. It’s really resonating well. What warms my heart is, I feel like, as I exit out, the company is in fantastic shape from a cultural perspective, from an overall business perspective, and from an investor perspective.

Are there any challenges that you’ll be leaving for Patrick to take care of after you leave?

The good news about transition of leadership is a new person comes in with a whole new set of ideas. And I know that Patrick is completely aligned with our strategic framework: how to get things done, where to focus, where to put emphasis or not. He'll bring his own tailored approach to that. And I mean this sincerely. A great succession is one where the person who's sort of transitioning out can feel really good that the person coming in is better than they are. And I truly feel that Patrick has all of the capabilities to really take the game up and bring in his new ideas and then go from there.

As it relates to challenges, yeah, that's what makes this a great industry. There are always challenges. The one on the horizon is to make sure that we capture greater than our fair position in this new era of AI. In addition to that, to capture our position or more than our position as it relates to the market that a lot of the as-a-service offerings are being executed on. But challenge is a good thing. And in the end, it'll provide more value for customers, vendors, and our coworkers as we go through it.

When do you think you'll stop looking at news about TD Synnex?

It will probably be a bit of a journey. I love this company and I love the people. And I will tell you this: I am very comfortable that I know my role and responsibility going forward. I'm not the type that is going to come in and provide too many points of view to Patrick. I’ll use the proverbial, ‘Handing the keys over, call me if you need me.’ But certainly, I'll be watching from afar, and I know that I'll be watching the great success of the 23,000-plus people in the organization across the globe. And that is really heartwarming for me.