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Tech Data’s Sammy Kinlaw On Why He Left Lexmark, Opportunity At The Endpoint
O’Ryan Johnson
‘I knew this was a job I could sink my teeth into. I knew they would give me the autonomy to grow and explore,’ says Sammy Kinlaw, new senior vice president of endpoint solutions for the Americas at Tech Data.
You worked for Rich Hume (pictured) at IBM and now you are working for him again. That seems like quite an endorsement, if you are coming back to him all these years later?
Rich was the president of the North American IT group at IBM. At the time, I was a business unit executive for IBM and I had responsibilities for 11 states. So I lived in Dallas. I had four managers and roughly 40 reps, so essentially, I was a second line manager for IBM running the PC and server business.
You always pick folks that you want to model aspects of their career after. Rich was like that for me. My favorite characteristic of an executive is one who can maintain composure in the eye of a crisis.
If you’re in a storm, you want a captain at the helm of the ship who is confident, cool and collected, who understands how to chart a path to smoother waters, that’s how I describe Rich. He’s a gentleman, and his business acumen is off the charts. But he’s got some fun-factor to him, so for me he passes the beer test. I like having a drink with Rich. There are many good qualities about him.
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