BARBADIAN TONY ALLEYNE, an engineer with vast experience in the information technology industry, maintains a ubiquitous presence in Georgia.
One minute he is meeting with corporate executives to discuss their firms’ sophisticated technology needs and in another he is interfacing with members of his 130-strong team of professionals at Arrow Electronics, a global provider of high-tech products, services and solutions to companies whose bottom line rises or plummets on electronic components and enterprise computer solutions.
Then, when he has completed his rounds, he may be focusing attention on the economic and social needs of Georgia’s burgeoning Caribbean immigrant community while reaching out to some movers and shakers in Atlanta and elsewhere in Georgia.
“We have seen significant growth in the number of people from the Caribbean making Georgia their home and we are reaching out to them and to others,” said Alleyne, whose family roots are in Jackson, St Michael, in Barbados.
The Bajan tries to keep his fingers on the pulse of the city and the state while managing Arrow Electronics’ technical resources arm.
Alleyne, who is also president of the Georgia Caribbean American Heritage Coalition, an umbrella body whose mission is to “preserve and promote information about the history, culture and economic and social well-being of countries” described the Coalition as the leading Caribbean organisation in Georgia, which an estimated 500 000 West Indians call home away-from-home.
Arrow, a global power in the electronics corporate environment, is a Fortune 150 company with sales of almost US$23 billion last year.
“It serves as a supply partner for over 100 000 original component manufacturers, contract manufacturers and commercial customers through a global network of more than 460 locations in 56 countries,” said Alleyne, who has lived outside of Barbados for decades, ever since he left his birthplace in 1969 for Britain.
“On any given day I have to deal with a plethora of computer storage issues or how to protect firms from hackers whose aim is to penetrate the information storage systems of companies. We connect customers to the right technology at the right places at the right time and at the right price.”
The 59 year-old engineer, who was trained at colleges and universities in Britain and the United States but whose early education was at Coleridge & Parry School in St Peter, traces much of his professional underpinnings to IBM, where he started as a systems engineer and followed an upward career path that included teaching field engineers, conducting scientific research, and channelling energy into the building and chartering of a support organisation while developing IBM information storage systems.
His next rung up the professional ladder was at Dickens Data Systems, a major IBM business partner, and he worked on a “world-class technical organisation that is holding its place among leading organisations today,” Alleyne pointed out.
From there, he moved to Avnet, where he was involved in a management services practice before moving on to Arrow to work with IBM partners and vendors, including Oracle, “ensuring we have a world-class technological organsation.”
But at every corporate twist and turn, Alleyne remained driven by community service. He was for years president of the Barbados Association of Atlanta, “promoting Barbados and its culture,” he said.
Tony Best is the Nation’s North American correspondent.