One of the longest-standing management teams in the Canadian channel community will include a new face by mid-year, as Frank Haid, Tech Data Canada’s vice president of sales, has announced that he will retire in mid-June.

Haid has been around distribution since the mid-198s, when he joined Compuserve in Vancouver and later Toronto. He later joined Softcell when that company purchased Compuserve’s parent, MicroAmerica. In 1994 he went to Globelle, and in 1999 he joined Tech Data Canada when Tech Data purchased Globelle – an acquisition Haid will gladly tell you was a high premium to fill the vacant vice president of sales job.

His last day with the distributor will June 14. Haid said that since the company announced his retirement to vendors and resellers on Thursday, he’s been “humbled” by the response from friends in the industry.

After leaving Tech Data Canada, Haid said his plans involve “having the summer to play,” and then figuring out what’s next.

“I don’t aspire to take on the same level of responsibility as I have here, but there might be things out there that I can contribute to,” Haid said. He said he’s interested in in checking out other industries, and has been particularly passionate about the green movement.

“I haven’t decided yet, but I’d like to think that I can have some sort of a role in contributing to someone, an opportunity to be a bit more altruistic,” Haid said.

In the meantime, Haid joked, he was going to enjoy his “lame duck” status at the company.

Tech Data Canada president Rick Reid said that Tech Data Canada has “no shortage of great people who’d like the opportunity to do something a little more high-level,” but that Haid’s replacement as vice president of sales would be “the subject of a future announcement.” He did suggest that it wouldn’t be a change in isolation.

“There are going to be a number of changes, and Frank’s going to help us bring that all together,” Reid said.

Reid said the announcement of Haid’s departure was timed to afford the executive a Gretzky-style last tour of the league. The distributor holds its TechSelect Canada gathering in St. John’s, and has dates on its Business Builder Tour in Quebec and Toronto in the coming month. And Reid said a couple of scheduled customer events in Western Canada may turn into a more complete tour of the region as well.

Reid said he and Haid had discussed Haid’s retirement for close to two years, and agreed that this was a good time.