Channel Legend Bob Stegner Retiring from TD Synnex

Bob Stegner, a fixture in the technology distribution business, plans to retire from TD Synnex next March and is stepping away from the industry he played a critical role in creating.

Stegner served as TD Synnex’s SVP of marketing for the past 17 years. He worked closely with Peter Larocque, who retired as president of TD Synnex last month. 

TD Synnex told Channel Futures that it expects to name Stegner's replacement soon.

There are few, if any, channel executives in the industry who have touched more lives than Stegner. His career served as a link to the industry’s high-flying entrepreneurial formative years to its status today as the primary way that technology is sold and consumed. He has seen it all, from the channel’s birth around computer retailing, to value-added reselling, to today’s complex ecosystem. 

Stegner’s status was on display last week in Miami Beach, Florida, at the Canalys Forum North America, where leaders from the industry’s biggest players gathered to discuss where the tech market is headed. Stegner sat at the renowned Canalys Captains of Industry dinner alongside partner industry leaders from AMD, Arrow, Blackpoint, CrowdStrike, Dell, Apple, Lenovo, HPE and Microsoft among others. (Canalys is owned by Channel Futures parent Informa.) 

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For so many years it seemed no matter where partners where gathered − from a major tech conference, advisory board meeting or golf tournament or fund raiser or local peer group − Stegner was there. He could be seen smiling, holding court or connecting influencers to one another. It seems everyone in the industry knows “Bob,” whether it was a technology supplier looking for ways to reach partners, or industry luminaries seeking insight on how to best leverage distribution companies like Tech Data, Synnex, Ingram Micro, or other players who populated the landscape since the dawn of the channel. 

“I consider Bob one of my best friends and it’s hard to have that relationship when you are producing results,” Larocque said of Stegner. “He is a family man first and foremost, very kind and one of the ‘funnest’ people you could ever imagine hanging out with. We will be friends for life.

TD Synnex's Peter Larocque

“Everyone knows how great a relationship guy he is," added Larocque. "I didn’t know what to expect 18 or 19 years ago when he joined us, but we are the better for him coming to work for us.” 

There is no doubt that Stegner knew how to inject fun into the events he ran for Synnex − and then TD Synnex − over the years, hamming it up for the audience by dressing up as Elvis or a member of the KISS rock band. Channel partners from companies of all sizes found Stegner relatable because of his modesty and a humility that many grew to appreciate. Stegner was also a born marketer and event director who built a distribution marketing empire at TD Synnex and had a reputation as someone you didn't negotiate with because of his proven results. What separates Stegner from other marketers is that he worked for distribution companies that barely made pennies on the dollar for goods sold. His marketing campaigns had to be creative, leveraging pools of funds from a wide range of sources while producing results which would drive continued support.  

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After threatening to retire or walk away for so many years in what became a running joke among those close to him, Stegner has finally drawn a line in the sand. As of March 2025, he will transition to an advisory role at TD Synnex. After forging what many saw as an unbreakable bond with Larocque, Stegner decided the time was right and told incoming TD Synnex president Reyna Thompson of his plans to step away. For the past several years, Stegner has commuted between his home in southern California where he lives with his wife, to TD Synnex’s offices in Greenville, South Carolina, which became his second home. 

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Stegner started in the business working for channel partner Sarcom for several years in the early 1990s before joining Ingram Micro in the summer of 1996 as senior director of channel programs. He quickly rose to Ingram’s VP of channel marketing by January 2000. Ingram’s influence and hold on the vendor community, along with Tech Data (which merged with Synnex), meant suppliers had to go through distribution to get their products into the hands of channel partners. Stenger’s marketing efforts were funded by vendors looking to advertise their products, have them featured at industry events, or promoted via Ingram’s direct sales team. At Ingram Micro, Stegner solidified his role at the center of distribution’s most powerful weapon: market development funds and vendor marketing funds earmarked to drive sales through partners via a wide variety of incentives, events and customer-demand initiatives. 

After nearly 11 years at Ingram, Stegner surprised his peers and industry watchers by jumping to competitor Synnex. There, he was responsible for marketing in the U.S. and Canada, enabling Synnex to develop marketing and sales programs on a pan-North American scale. After Synnex merged with distribution giant Tech Data in 2021 to become TD Synnex, Stegner remained there for more than 17 years. 

When Tech Data CEO Rich Hume stepped down, Stegner wrote on LinkedIn: “Was such a great experience to work with Rich during the beginning of the merger as we developed the new company name up to the changing of the guard. A great people person with all our coworkers. Did not matter who or what you did, he always had time to talk to you. And to think he is a Penn State fan! Go Buckeyes.” That type of commentary was typical from Stegner. 

More recently, Stegner was honored by the city of Greenville for his and TD Synnex’s efforts to hold its Inspire conference in the city not long after Hurricane Helene devastated the area. City of Greenville Mayor Knox White personally thanked Stegner on stage for his efforts to hold the event so soon after the hurricane. 

Perhaps Stegner’s lasting legacy will be the contribution he made to helping found and support the Share the Magic charity, which has raised more than $30 million. That was cited by Larocque as one of Stegner’s greatest accomplishments and one they worked on together. Share the Magic is an annual fundraising initiative that provides money for children and families in the Upstate region of South Carolina.