Channel programs News
TD Synnex’s Sammy Kinlaw On Major Partner Communities Reorganization
Joseph F. Kovar
‘Communities are so big and so meaningful to TD Synnex. They’re an audience of partners who were dedicated. And for that dedication, they get favors. They gain other things perhaps that one of our resellers might not get if they don’t consider the community. There’s just a lot of extras’, says Sammy Kinlaw, TD Synnex’s senior vice president of sales communities for North America.
Talk about your role at TD Synnex. Is this a new role for the company?
It is a new role. I’ve been with the company a little over a year, and during that time saw a lot of changes. We went through a merger, and we just finished our first quarter and our first year roll-up as TD Synnex. And during the past little over a year, I’ve had two major jobs with the company. I was running endpoint solutions, and that’s where I started at what was Tech Data, coming from running the global channel at Lexmark. And then I transitioned into running sales, and then post merge, I picked up new responsibilities running our communities. And that’s a new role. It’s a new organization. There were disparate communities that rolled up either through sales or marketing, and based on the importance of communities [TD Synnex CEO] Rich Hume, [TD Synnex President Americas] Michael Urban, and [TD Synnex President, Americas] Peter Larocque asked if I could step in and create a new umbrella organization where all communities would report through.
You spent a relatively short time managing TD Synnex’s endpoint business, then moved to sales, and now to communities. Those are pretty quick shifts for somebody coming into a company. What happened?
They were quick shifts. That’s one thing in regards to mergers that happens, right? There’s new rules and new players and it’s a new game. And you contribute where you can. I had a fantastic experience running endpoint. Frankly, it was all legacy vendors that I knew and had competed with in the past. I knew that business like the back of my hand, and it was enjoyable. But during that transition, the previous SVP (senior vice president) of sales [Marty Bauerlein] left the company. They asked me to step in upon his departure. And then post-merge, Peter and Michael asked me to run communities. And then Steve Jow took on [a new role as executive vice president of sales]. So yeah, quick hits. But personally for me, I took a lot from those roles. I gave a lot to those roles and frankly I left both of them in better shape from when I picked them up. So yeah, it was a good experience.
