A Toast to Al Maag

In the world of business journalism, a company’s corporate communications manager can be a barrier to the press or a gateway into the internal workings of an organization. One of the best in the business, Al Maag, is retiring from Avnet Inc. this month.

My first professional interaction with Al – then a PR person for Hamilton/Avnet – was as a newbie reporter on the electronics distribution beat for an electronics trade publication. One of Hamilton Electronics’ longtime executives had announced his retirement, signaling the end of an era defined by the now-legendary Tony Hamilton. Without really understanding the back-story of the Hamilton/Avnet merger, I naively called this executive for a comment.

I had set off a firestorm… Read More