Clearwater tech giant CEO announces retirement

Rich Hume, who led Clearwater tech giant Tech Data through an acquisition and a merger, and then led the combined business, now TD Synnex, through the pandemic, is retiring. 

Hume joined the company in 2016 as COO and assumed the CEO role in 2018. The acquisition of Avnet Technology Solutions occurred in 2017 and the merger with California-based Synnex took place in 2021.

A distributor of tech products that at one point counted Apple, Cisco, Hewlett-Packard and Microsoft as clients, TD Synnex is one of the largest publicly traded firms in the region, with $57.55 billion a year in revenue. It has some 22,000 employees and works with 1,500 technology vendors.

"It has been the greatest privilege of my professional career to serve as CEO of TD Synnex. I am proud of the culture we have built, our partner-first focus and commitment to customer excellence, and the purpose-driven approach we have taken in our business,” says Hume in a statement.

Patrick Zammit, who has been COO since January and previously served with Avnet since 1993, was named CEO. Zammit led the European region and eventually the APJ region after the acquisition. "In this dynamic and ever-changing technology landscape, Patrick is the right leader to build on this foundation as we continue to deliver value to our customers and vendors across the ecosystem," says Hume, who will continue to serve on the company's board. 

"I am honored to succeed Rich and lead TD Synnex into its next chapter. I look forward to building on the strong foundation we have established and driving forward our strategy and digitization roadmap to ensure we are constantly delivering the greatest value to our co-workers, partners, vendors, and shareholders,” Zammit says in the statement. “Rich has been an outstanding leader and I look forward to continuing to work with him in his role on our board of directors."