Steve Phillips is senior vice president and chief information officer for Avnet, Inc., reporting to Avnet Chief Operating Officer Rick Hamada. He is also a member of the Avnet Executive Board and a corporate officer. Steve 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, Steve 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 as chief information officer. Between 1996 and 1999, he worked for Diageo, the international food and drinks group, where he was information technology director for its European foods division.

He previously spent eight years in a variety of leadership roles at Thorn EMI, a UK defense-electronics company. In May 2007 he was elected to the board of directors of the Arizona Technology Council. During the same month he was named to eWeek's Top 100 CIOs. Ranked No. 56, Mr. Phillips was referenced as being "a leader in IT best practices and a big proponent of business intelligence solutions."