Computex CEO Sam Haffar Steps Down; EVP Faisal Bhutto, CTO Worth Davis Both Promoted

‘I have 100 percent confidence in the future of Computex with Faisal and Worth stepping up to top leadership positions,’ says Haffar. ‘They are great leaders with many, many great accomplishments. I am very confident in their ability. They are good friends.’

Sam Haffar, who founded Computex Technology Solutions with his brother and built it into of the most respected solution providers in the country, is resigning after 33 years leading the company.

Haffar (pictured above) is stepping aside as Computex CEO and a member of the board of directors, just five weeks after American Virtual Cloud Technologies (AVCT) acquired Houston based Computex, No. 117 on the CRN SP500.

AVCT – which is led by telecom industry veteran and solution provider entrepreneur Darrell Mays - is moving aggressively to build out a premiere Unified Communications as a Service (UcaaS) provider with Computex playing a leading role. As AVCT CEO, Mays has built out an executive team that has experience running multi-billion dollar enterprises.

“It’s been a great ride,” said Haffar of the journey building Computex from a small system builder to a nationally recognized cloud services provider. “I’m very proud of what we have built at Computex. I’m looking forward to taking some time off and then focusing on the next chapter of my life.”

Haffar’s technology vision allowed Computex to navigate one treacherous technology paradigm shift after another from the PC revolution to local area and wide area network boom to the virtualization build out and finally the cloud services era.

Under his leadership, Computex developed its own full suite of 24/7 recurring revenue cloud services, including its own cloud service and security and disaster recovery offerings with an end-to-end customer experience backed up by top-notch technical talent.

Computex has its own multimillion dollar (NOC) network operations centers in Houston and Minneapolis along with a security operations center (SOC) in Houston, a solutions lab for testing complex technology solutions, and three integration centers.

With Haffar’s departure, trusted lieutenants Faisal Bhutto and Worth Davis have been promoted as presidents respectively of the managed services/cybersecurity business and the solution provider business unit.

“I have 100 percent confidence in the future of Computex with Faisal and Worth stepping up to top leadership positions,” said Haffar. “They are great leaders with many, many great accomplishments. I am very confident in their ability. They are good friends. We have been through thick and thin together. They are just outstanding executives with a great future ahead of them. Computex is in good hands under their leadership.”

Bhutto (pictured above), the former partner and chief operating officer of ENET solutions, which Computex acquired six years ago, has been promoted from executive vice president to President, Cloud and Cybersecurity. He will continue to lead the Managed Services & Cybersecurity divisions of Computex.

Bhutto, who obtained his Cisco CCIE and MBA at the age of 25, has been a driving force behind growing Computex’s cloud and managed services portfolio.

Worth Davis, the 25-year CIO veteran and a former director of IT for $77 billion energy conglomerate Engie who joined Computex eight years ago, has been promoted from CTO to President, Computex Solutions Provider business unit.

Davis (pictured above) has played a key role in ensuring that Computex remains ahead of the fast moving technology curve with a focus on emerging technologies including artificial intelligence and big data.

Separately, Dominick Passanante, who was vice president of sales and channel operations Panasonic Corp, has joined AVCT as Chief Revenue Officer. He will be responsible or driving ACVT’s revenue across all lines of business.

Mays – who wished Haffar well in future endeavors – said in a prepared statement that he was grateful for Haffar’s past leadership. “We are confident the changes to our executive team and promotions at Computex will drive growth within our current business unit and propel the development of our new product portfolio,” he said.

Haffar said he is most proud of the strong relationships he has built both at Computex and in the industry with vendor partners and colleagues. “So many people that I have worked with have become family to me,” said Haffar. “

Looking back at the astronomical growth of Computex, Haffar said it has been “very fulfilling” to see the company employ 200 people. “Think of all the families that we support,” he said.

Haffar said leading Computex has been a journey of “constant learning” with colleagues that have become like family. “It takes the right talent, work ethic and integrity,” he said. “It’s a people business. You need to treat people the right way. We always had a vision of what we wanted the business to be and always kept striving to make it better.”

Even with all he has accomplished at Computex, Haffar is not ready to leave the technology business behind. “I’m not ready to retire,” he said. “After some time off, I’m going to look at all of the opportunities out there in the solution provider and OEM worlds. I love the technology business. It’s my life.”