Keynote Address

Speaker: Steve Phillips (Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer, Avnet Inc.

Keynote Title: IT as a Competitive Asset

Steve Phillips is senior vice president and chief information officer for Avnet, Inc., reporting to Avnet CEO Rick Hamada. He is also a member of the Avnet Executive Board and a corporate officer. Mr. Phillips came to Avnet with the 2005 acquisition of Memec, where he had served as senior vice president and chief information officer since 2004. Prior to joining Memec, Mr. Phillips was senior vice president and chief information officer for Gateway Inc. He joined Gateway in 1999 and served as vice president of information technology (IT) in London and San Diego before his appointment in 2003 to chief information officer. Between 1996 and 1999, he worked for Diageo, the international food and drinks group, where he was the IT director for its European foods division. He previously spent eight years in a variety of leadership roles at Thorn EMI, a U.K. defense-electronics company. Mr. Phillips is chairman emeritus on the board of the Arizona Technology Council, a trade association that connects, represents and supports Arizona's technology industry. He served as chairman from 2008 through 2011. Mr. Phillips serves as a director of Wick Communications, a private newspaper and specialty publication company.

Under Mr. Phillips’ IT leadership, Avnet has been recognized with multiple awards, including the CIO 100, Computerworld Top Green-IT Vendor Organizations and InformationWeek 500. Additionally, Computerworld named Mr. Phillips a “Premier 100 IT Leader” in 2011.  This lifetime recognition honors executives for exceptional technology leadership, innovative ideas to address business challenges and effectively managing IT strategies. Mr. Phillips holds a BSc (Hons) in Electronic Engineering from Essex University and a post-graduate Diploma in Management Studies from Thames Valley University. He is a Fellow of the Institution of Engineering & Technology.