The largest company in the region's big goal: stay No. 1

Tech Data’s new CEO, Rich Hume, starts his CEO gig at the top. How will he keep the business in the pole position?

By Brian Hartz
| 4:52 p.m. July 5, 2018
| 0 Free Articles Remaining!

Mark Wemple. Rich Hume is the new CEO of Tech Data.

Leadership

June 6 marked the end of an epoch at Tech Data, the Clearwater-based IT distributor that surpassed Publix this year for the No. 1 spot in the Business Observer’s Top 500 list of the largest companies by revenue.

That was the date Bob Dutkowsky, 63, stepped down from his position as CEO, ending a wildly successful 12-year run. The new CEO is Rich Hume, 58, a fellow IBM alumnus who joined Tech Data in 2016 as COO — and is Dutkowsky’s handpicked successor.