WWT CEO Jim Kavanaugh Honored With Best Of The Channel Lifetime Achievement Award

‘There are so many things I’m proud of regarding the growth and success of the company and the value we bring—but more importantly is how we have treated our employees and built relationships with our customers and partners,’ Kavanaugh tells CRN.

It requires a certain level of fortitude to take a small IT startup and build it into a $20 billion solution provider powerhouse.

Jim Kavanaugh, co-founder and CEO of St. Louis-based World Wide Technology, has done just that, and he credits his parents for instilling in him the necessary values for success early on.

“Call it my DNA that I got from my parents and their approach around certain values: your grit, your determination, your fight, your work ethic—those were ingrained in me early and very much reinforced as an athlete,” said Kavanaugh, who was a member of the U.S. Olympic soccer team and later a professional player in the 1980s prior to founding WWT in 1990.

Kavanaugh’s drive for success, along with his business savvy, his commitment to building a world-class corporate culture and his philanthropic efforts, have earned him the inaugural Lifetime Achievement Award at CRN’s Best of the Channel Awards. Jim Kavanaugh received the honor at a black-tie gala at Fox Theatre in Atlanta on Oct. 14.

The leadership attributes and drive necessary to be a successful CEO and professional athlete are similar, said Kavanaugh.

“You have to continue to step up your game,” he said. “And if you don’t continue to have a never-ending desire and willingness to put the time and effort in to improve yourself and have the spirit of continuous learning, continuous development—you’ll plateau out. The same thing applies in sports. The same thing applies in business.”

Michael Dell, founder, chairman and CEO of Dell Technologies, one of WWT’s key technology partners, lauded Kavanaugh’s ability to push the technology envelope and reinvent WWT again and again.

“To stand the test of time in technology, a leader has to see what’s coming and fearlessly reinvent to stay ahead,” Michael Dell said in an email to CRN. “Jim is a true visionary who built WWT from the ground up into a technology powerhouse.”

He described Kavanaugh as “an incredible partner over decades” for Dell Technologies.

“Jim has a keen understanding of business and how both our companies can grow and share in mutual success,” said Dell, who has led Dell Technologies since its inception.

Antonio Neri, president and CEO of industry titan HPE, pointed to Kavanaugh’s talent for seeing ahead of the curve.

“His ability to anticipate market shifts—whether transitioning from reselling to services, investing in software development or embracing AI—has consistently positioned WWT at the forefront of the industry,” Neri said in an email to CRN. “Jim’s leadership is defined by a willingness to embrace change and a relentless focus on driving innovation.”

Influencing The Channel At Large

In his role as the head of WWT—No. 9 on the 2025 CRN Solution Provider 500—Kavanaugh’s influence is felt throughout the channel. The relationships he has built with executive leaders at companies such as Cisco Systems, Dell, HPE and Nvidia, among many others, have helped shape how key technology vendors work with solution providers across the industry.

WWT has been selected to dozens of vendors’ Partner Advisory Boards, which are typically tasked with shaping channel programs, partner incentives and overall go-to-market.

Michael Dell called Kavanaugh “one of the original innovators of the channel relationship.”

“Many of [Kavanaugh’s] innovations have fostered programs and policies that have become a blueprint for the industry,” said Michael Dell.

Kavanaugh’s forward-thinking strategy and commitment to WWT’s innovation “have consistently inspired HPE to elevate our partner relationships,” Neri said, calling Kavanaugh and WWT “instrumental in shaping HPE’s approach to channel partnerships.”

“Jim’s leadership extends beyond the walls of WWT, driving collaboration and innovation across the broader partner ecosystem,” HPE’s CEO said. “His ability to inspire and unite people and teams around a shared vision is what truly sets him apart.”

Not only has Kavanaugh shaped the channel and innovation road map for IT giants of the world, but WWT is now coaching emerging tech companies on how to treat and incentivize channel partners.

“We certainly contribute our ideas in shaping the channel programs that, not only the largest companies have like Dell, Cisco, NetApp, Pure, HPE, but I feel like we really do a good service to the industry by coaching and mentoring many emerging tech companies, especially around cybersecurity and AI where we’re helping shape their channel programs and what success looks like,” said Bob Olwig, executive vice president of global partner alliances at WWT.

“And that all starts from Jim in terms of what we have found to work,” Olwig said. “I’ve never seen a more determined person.”

Anticipating Tech Transitions

Over the decades, Kavanaugh had to repeatedly transform WWT to keep ahead of the curve in the ever-evolving tech world.

Some difficult transitions came when Kavanaugh pivoted WWT away from a focus on reselling hardware to creating top-notch service offerings for customers, as well as diversifying its mostly federal government customer base.

“Eighty percent of our business was with the federal government early on. We intentionally diversified into the enterprise and commercial space. A lot of companies that try to do that don’t do it successfully, but we are able to do that successfully,” Kavanaugh said.

Kavanaugh also had the foresight to hire data scientists a decade ago and invest in software development, which positioned WWT perfectly to meet the demands of today’s AI market.

“About 10-plus years ago, I was thinking about skating to where the puck was going and we made a big investment in software development and building out a small, boutique data science practice that really played out well to position us to where generative AI has played out,” Kavanaugh said.

Olwig credited Kavanaugh’s foresight and “intense curiosity” as a major reason why the company is at the top of the channel pyramid today.

“When I started, Jim had this idea of starting an application development organization for document imaging and workflow. I mean, that was way ahead of its time for a VAR 30 years ago,” said Olwig.

“I’ve seen an intense curiosity that Jim has about our business, our people and the industry at large. There’s no better example of that insatiable curiosity than around artificial intelligence. Looking at the time that he commits himself personally to being a student of the industry and what AI means to our business—and to our employees and to our customers—is just absolutely remarkable,” Olwig said.

The high level at which WWT is performing is evident in the long list of accolades it has received in 2025 from its vendor partners.

WWT was recently named HPE’s 2025 Solution Provider and AI Solution Provider of the Year, as well as Dell Technologies’ 2025 North America AI Partner of the Year and Federal AI Partner of the Year. The solution provider also recently won various global and regional Partner of the Year awards from Cisco, Nvidia, Google Cloud, NetApp, Splunk, Pure Storage, Juniper Networks and Zscaler, to name just a few.

In addition to its top 10 spot on the Solution Provider 500, WWT has earned numerous awards from CRN in 2025, including being honored on the Tech Elite 250 and IoT Innovators lists.

WWT, which employs over 12,000 people at more than 60 locations across the globe, counts over 80 percent of the Fortune 100 as customers, owns one of the most innovative AI labs in the world via its Advanced Technology Center, and has been named to Fortune’s prestigious list of “Best Companies To Work For” 14 years in a row.

Fostering Leadership

One of the most important aspects of WWT’s success under Kavanaugh is his determination to build and mentor fellow leaders.

About 25 years ago, Kavanaugh crafted and launched WWT’s Integrated Management and Leadership curriculum, aimed at driving the core values and culture at WWT.

“One of our big, or maybe the biggest, strategy is really the intentional focus on building out our own custom-built Integrated Management and Leadership curriculum,” said Kavanaugh. “It has been a huge reason for our overall success.”

The curriculum focuses on training, developing and mentoring WWT managers and leaders on the company’s values, behaviors and business concepts.

WWT’s cultural values steer employees toward great teamwork, kindness for each other, a passion for hard work and making sure they are engaged and excited about working at WWT.

For example, Kavanaugh said most companies spend 80 percent to 90 percent of their dollars on their employees.

“So you would think that it would only make sense to try to get the most out of your people that you can and spend the time equally. So that the time you spend on your vision, your mission, your operations and financial focus—you spend the same amount of time on getting the right people on board, developing them, training them and making sure that they are performing,” he said.

Some companies have a high percentage of employees who are either disengaged or even worse, Kavanaugh said.

“It should be disturbing as a leader with all the money you’re spending that so many employees are disengaged. So it’s like, ‘What if you had 100 percent or 95 percent of your employees engaged and really excited about your business?’ Think about the productivity,” he said. “So that’s the mindset we look at.”

Kavanaugh is committed to maintaining a world-class leadership program via the Integrated Management and Leadership curriculum for his employees that is built on a foundation of trust and inclusivity.

Earlier this year, over 2,000 WWT employees flocked to Las Vegas for a company conference. The conference was not about sales training, marketing or business development like typical tech events—but focused squarely on leadership training, workshops, development and reinforcement of WWT’s Integrated Management and Leadership curriculum.

The countless dollars WWT invests each year on making sure its employees follow the company’s culture and value is critical, the CEO said.

For example, even if one of WWT’s most talented engineers or sales leaders fails to follow the Integrated Management and Leadership curriculum, they can be let go.

“Individuals at World Wide may be really, really good from a performance standpoint, but we are very disciplined about, ‘We’re either going to coach you up so your values get in line with ours, or we’re going to coach you out,’” Kavanaugh said.

“And when you coach out a top performer, like a top engineer, people listen and are like, ‘Wow, WWT takes this very seriously about being a team player,’” he said. “If people think because they’re smarter than somebody, or they’re performing better [that] they have the right to be disrespectful—no, that’s unacceptable.”

Accepting and abiding by WWT’s core values of inclusivity and “being a good person to other people” is something Kavanaugh takes to heart.

“It’s something that we take very seriously, and the feedback from our employees has been just off the charts,” he said.

Kavanaugh’s ‘People-First Philosophy’

It is not just Kavanaugh’s business savvy that’s made him a legendary leader, but his people-first leadership philosophy and charitable work.

After working along Kavanaugh for nearly 30 years, Olwig said he’s had a front-row seat to witness just how much the CEO cares about people.

For several years, Kavanaugh was the chairman of the board for the largest homeless services agency in St. Louis, the St. Patrick Center, which helps homeless people with long-term solutions.

“Jim cared about our community very early on in our company’s history, and he rallied World Wide in volunteers and donations to support ending homelessness in St. Louis through the St. Patrick Center,” Olwig said.

“He’s very people-first, inclusive, wants to help others and definitely leads by example,” said Olwig. “He really inspired me to take interest in homelessness, and I ended up serving on the board for nine years.”

Kavanaugh also serves as a member of the American Cancer Society’s CEOs Against Cancer of Missouri-St. Louis Chapter, where he once led a $9 million capital campaign for the society. The funding enabled the organization to renovate and remodel Hope Lodge St. Louis, a free home away from home for patients and their caregivers, which was renamed the World Wide Technology Hope Lodge in 2020.

In 2025, WWT ranked No. 3 on Fortune’s “Best Workplaces In Technology” list and also made the U.K.’s list of “Best Workplaces for Wellbeing.”

“Jim’s people-first philosophy is at the heart of everything he does,” said HPE’s Neri. “Both colleagues and customers frequently highlight Jim’s genuine care for people, as he leads with empathy, integrity and a deep respect for those around him.”

WWT built a Global Community Impact Program as well as WWT Cares, an initiative that encourages employees across the globe to participate in volunteer activities to positively impact their communities, providing each WWT employee with a paid “Day of Caring” to give back to causes that they value.

Kavanaugh also mentors successful leaders outside the business world.

He had led one of the most successful soccer institutions in America by chairing the ultra-elite St. Louis Scott Gallagher Club, aimed at developing players both on and off the field. Led by Kavanaugh for the past 15 years, the club focuses on empowering young players, supporting families and strengthening the community via scholarships and fundraising projects in the St. Louis area.

“We took a lot of the management and leadership things that we built in World Wide and brought it to the club in regard to how to train and manage the coaches, the directors, the VPs around behavioral issues, development issues, values of the club—those things are very transferable,” Kavanaugh said. “We also give out scholarships to hundreds of kids that can’t afford to play organized sports.”

The club has produced hundreds of professional soccer players, including superstar Tim Ream and Josh Sargent, who both played for the U.S. national team in the 2022 FIFA World Cup.

Thanks to Kavanaugh, the club’s World Wide Technology Soccer Park now includes several soccer stadiums that can host thousands of fans each game.

“For me, it’s a form of giving back,” Kavanaugh said.

Kavanaugh believes his people-first mantra at WWT is a key reason his company has stood the test of time.

“There are so many things I’m proud of regarding the growth and success of the company and the value we bring—but more importantly is how we have treated our employees and built relationships with our customers and partners,” said Kavanaugh.

From having shaped the trillion-dollar channel industry to being a beloved leader, Kavanaugh said he’s most proud of the impact he and WWT have had on people.

“We’ve had a positive impact on a lot of different communities and people around the world. Those are the things that I am most proud of as a leader,” he said. “I want people to have the drive, grit, the determination and the confidence to go after it and think big and bold. And at the end of the day, just be a good person.”