IBM Australia and New Zealand chief operating officer Tony Best is set to retire after four years in the role and 36 years with the company.
IBM ANZ managing director Katrina Troughton announced Best’s retirement on LinkedIn.
“For 36 years, Tony has been an essential fixture in IBM - and to all those who have worked with Tony, please join me in saying farewell to Tony and celebrating his extraordinary contributions. We wish him all the very best in his retirement as he enjoys new adventures with his family,” Troughton’s post read.
“For over 19 years, Tony has been an active and highly valuable member of the ANZ Leadership Team, helping IBM navigate through its own ongoing business and cultural transformation and re-inventions, global market impacts, and local economic shifts.
“His leadership, expertise, and kindness will be sorely missed by all of us. I would like to extend my deep personal gratitude for the wise counsel, support, and friendship from Tony over many years.”
A number of current and former colleagues sent their well wishes, including former IBM executives Harriet Green, Glen Boreham, Raoul Van Engelshoven; IBM global channel chief and former IBM ANZ boss David La Rose, VMware ANZ managing director Brad Anderson, Microsoft ANZ managing director Steven Worrall and many others.
Best first joined IBM in 1985 as a systems engineer at its Sydney office, later holding leadership roles for its software business across Australia and Asia-Pacific.
He also helped set up IBM’s Tivoli brand in Australia and served as its general manager before being tapped to lead Tivoli in the wider Asia-Pacific region.
Best later moved up to senior leadership at IBM ANZ when he was named vice president of commercial and channels in 2011, later moving to vice president of IBM Cloud in 2016. He was named chief operating officer in 2018.
Troughton added, “With experience spanning software, cloud, public sector, enterprise and commercial, digital as well as working closely with IBM's business partners, Tony has forged a deep appreciation and understanding of IBM’s strategy and operating model, the clients we serve in our market, our technology portfolio and our people.”
