Colin McKenna
Described as a ‘true gentleman’ among his IT industry peers, Colin McKenna sadly passed away peacefully surrounded by his loving family at home on 24 August.
McKenna spent almost 30 years in the IT industry, starting his journey alongside Brian Mitchell, when they both joined IBM on the same day in February 1978.
Following his time at IBM, McKenna joined Prime Computer for about three years, before running government accounts for Unisys and then became the head of sales at Digital Equipment in the lead up to its acquisition by Compaq.
Soon after, he was tapped on the shoulder as the local leader for value-add distributor Avnet Australia in 1998.
“I was always very fond of Colin, he was a classical gentleman, always good to deal with and a nice chap,” Mitchell said.
McKenna served as the managing director for value-add distributor Avnet Australia for about eight years, until his decision to retire at the end of 2006, with Gavin Lawless taking over the top job at the time.
“Colin was one of those genuinely nice human beings,” Lawless reminisced. “He was calm under pressure and very even keeled.
“I never came across anyone in the industry who didn’t say positive things about Colin and I will always be grateful to him for choosing me as his successor at Avnet, which was a very enjoyable time of my career- continuing the growth of Avnet which was started by him.”
Snowflake head of partner marketing, Michael Costigan, who started working at Avnet Australia in 2001 said McKenna pioneered and championed value-add in distribution.
“We were tasked with setting up the partner value-add distribution business from a direct business, which was fantastic with his innovative leadership,” Costigan said. “He had a regional leader at the time that he reported to called Ned Kelly, which McKenna found great delight in introducing him and enjoyed a joke or two.
“He was a fair man with people’s best interests at heart and was a great mentor, he’ll be personally missed.”
McKenna remained active during his retirement, in particular with executive coaching and using his years of experience to coach senior executives across various businesses and sectors.
He also volunteered his time with the St Vincent de Paul, where he covered roles from joining the local conference to becoming a regional president of the area and spent his final few years as Minister for Social Justice, focusing on social and affordable housing initiatives.
