CompTIA’s Chief Learns from Electronics Industry

The new chief of the Computing Technology Industry Association (CompTIA) promises to reinvigorate the IT industry trade association by borrowing some strategies hard-won during more than 17 years at the Consumer Electronics Association.

Todd Thibodeaux becomes CompTIA’s chief Sept. 1.

Todd Thibodeaux will take the reins as president and CEO on CompTIA Sept. 1; he succeeds John Venator, who led CompTIA since 1989.

Thibodeaux has a lot to recommend him. He has nearly two decades of association and industry experience. “I am a complete technology geek when it comes to all things consumer tech or enterprise tech,” he said in an interview July 2, just one day after becoming CompTIA’s president and CEO designate. Inner geekiness surely will help him relate to his constituents – IT channel partners and their suppliers. But what the 25-year-old association could really use now is his showmanship. “I know that we need to get out and do a much better job of branding ourselves,” he said. “The awareness level of the organization outside the people who are involved on a day-to-day basis on a volunteer standpoint is relatively low.”

The company’s annual domestic trade show, for example, draws only about 1,000 participants – an anemic turnout considering the industry’s $3 trillion heft.

That means moving beyond CompTIA’s well known IT certifications, such as A+ and the recently released Convergence+. Thibodeaux plans to raise CompTIA’s profile by getting involved in hot-button issues such as green IT, telecommuting and mobile spectrum. That involvement may include lobbying, sponsoring research, developing training programs and creating certifications.

He said he is particularly interested in how CompTIA can influence what happens when new mobile spectrum opens up next year. Public policy is well covered by other groups, “but in terms of the applications that can be deployed and the equipment that will be needed and the training that will be needed to make all those systems work and communicate – there are some things that haven’t been worked out yet,” he said, noting that’s where CompTIA can play a big role.

“We’ll try to represent a broader swath of what is considered IT. Those will be our priorities along with trying to keep our bread and butter programs going and growing,” he said.

How does he plan to do that? One way is to follow CEA’s example and beef up the marketing and PR – a well-worn tactic in the consumer electronics industry.

Thibodeaux was part of the team that grew CEA ─ best known for producing the Consumer Electronics Show, the world’s largest technology event ─ from a handful of member companies to more than 2,200 members and 150 employees. Since joining CEA in 1990, Thibodeaux has held many posts; most recently, he was senior vice president and played key leaderships roles in short- and long-term strategic planning, partnership and investment opportunity development, standards and technology innovation, market analysis and member relations. Notably, he was a primary spokesperson for CEA.