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Avnet Technology Solutions Appoints Bruce Hockin to Lead its SolutionsPath Practices in the UK

Bracknell, 4 January 2012:

Avnet Technology Solutions, the global IT solutions distribution leader and an operating group of Avnet, Inc. (NYSE: AVT), announced today the promotion of Bruce Hockin to head of solutions strategy for Avnet Technology Solutions, UK. In this role, Hockin will be responsible for expanding Avnet’s recently launched SolutionsPath^® practices in the UK, which are designed to help Avnet's business partners target specialised, high-growth markets. He will report to Laura Harman, sales director for Avnet Technology Solutions, UK, and is now a member of the UK executive team.

“Bruce has a proven track record of helping Avnet’s business partners grow in highly specialized data centre technology markets, such as networking, security and unified communications,” said John Toal, vice president and country manager for Avnet Technology Solutions UK and Ireland. “His appointment to lead Avnet’s SolutionsPath practices in the UK is one of the many ways we are investing in enabling our partners to take advantage of rapidly expanding markets and target the data centre with complete IT solutions.”

Hockin joined Avnet in 2008, following the company’s acquisition of Horizon Technology Group. Most recently, he served as the head of business strategy in the UK, focused on networking and security, unified communications, storage, and wireless and mobility. As part of this, Hockin was responsible for the development and execution of the go-to-market strategy for these businesses including marketing management, solutions strategy and vendor acquisition. He will continue to lead these areas in his new position.

“Avnet has built a solid foundation in the UK based on a proven methodology for enabling partners to target specialised, high-growth markets,” said Hockin. “My team and I will be taking this to the next level by providing partners with new resources, services and support that will allow them to capture these dynamic market opportunities quickly, while helping them to reduce associated risks and costs.”

Avnet launched four SolutionsPath technology practices in the UK in September. These include practices focused on Storage and Data Management; Datacentre Optimisation and Virtualisation; Unified Communications, Collaboration and Mobility; and Cloud Computing. Each of these practices has dedicated resources with the market knowledge required to deliver the training and expertise partners need to effectively create solutions that combine technologies and services to solve the business problems and IT challenges facing companies.

Currently, Avnet’s SolutionsPath practices are available in areas of Asia Pacific, EMEA, North America and Latin America. Partners engaging in these practices have consistently grown their businesses faster than the market, with many participating partners experiencing double digit growth rates.

About Avnet Technology Solutions

As a global IT solutions distributor, Avnet Technology Solutions collaborates with its customers and suppliers to create and deliver services, software and hardware solutions that address the business needs of their end-user customers locally and around the world. For fiscal year 2011, the group served customers in more than 70 countries and generated US $11.5 billion in annual revenue. Avnet Technology Solutions (www.ats.avnet.com) is an operating group of Avnet, Inc.

About Avnet

Avnet, Inc. (NYSE:AVT), a Fortune 500 company, is one of the largest distributors of electronic components, computer products and embedded technology serving customers in more than 70 countries worldwide. Avnet accelerates its partners' success by connecting the world's leading technology suppliers with a broad base of more than 100,000 customers by providing cost-effective, value-added services and solutions. For the fiscal year ended July 2, 2011, Avnet generated revenue of $26.5 billion. For more information, visit www.avnet.com.

Media Contacts

Linda Patterson, Marketing Director
Avnet Technology Solutions
T: +44 (0)1344 662000
E: Linda.patterson@avnet.com