Travel and tech an ideal mix for Khan

Ingram Micro security sales specialist spends most of his time on the road

By Vera Alves, Auckland | Thursday, 27 January 2011
With 2010 behind him, Ingram Micro’s senior market development manager Andrew Khan is looking forward to the challenges this year will bring.

He has worked for Ingram Micro in Auckland for more than two years now and believes the best thing about the industry is it keeps changing and evolving. A close second is the fact his product portfolio is widely valued by users.

“People are always trying to protect their assets,” says Khan, who believes security remains a vital part of any business, as new threats continue to appear. “Security is something businesses have to have. Cyber crime is increasing, you see it in the news all the time, and companies have to be PCI compliant. People want to take your money and this is something that is growing,” he says.

Khan finished 2010 feeling positive about business. “Fortinet and Juniper [two of the brands Khan works with] have a lot of praise in New Zealand and have been experiencing a lot of growth. I think 2011 is going to be even better.”

Much of Khan’s work involves meeting with clients and helping them protect their businesses. Despite being relatively new to Ingram Micro, Khan has more than 20 years’ experience in sales. Prior to joining Ingram Micro, he worked for iCollector, an online auction site for art and antiques, based in England.

Although he was born in England, Khan considers New Zealand his true home. He first settled in Christchurch when he moved to New Zealand with his parents as a child. In 2000, he decided to move to Auckland, where he now lives with his wife and 14 month-old boy.

After working for iCollector for about a year, Khan decided New Zealand was the place for him. “I’ve been back to the UK three times and I worked there for about a year but I’m a Kiwi at heart so I had to come home.”

However, travelling remains one of Khan’s passions – and one he is sure was inherited from his father, who was an officer engineer for the Merchant Navy. It was thanks to his father’s job that the Khan family ended up in New Zealand. “He first came to New Zealand in the 1950s. It was all about seeing the world. Then in the 1970s there was a lack of skilled engineers in New Zealand, so dad took the opportunity and moved us here,” he recalls.

Khan’s role currently involves a lot of travelling, one of the aspects of the job he enjoys the most, as he gets to explore New Zealand from Kaitaia to Invercargill on a regular basis. Now with a baby, however, he tries to spend as much time as possible at home, on Auckland’s North Shore. “At the moment it’s okay. My wife understands [my need to travel] but we make time for the family. It’s a fact of life. You don’t earn the rewards by sitting at home.”

Khan has always been interested in technology and has always tried to keep up with new developments, as he knows how significantly IT has changed the world. “I’m 43 years old and I can’t imagine a world without email anymore.”

His job at Ingram Micro has further fuelled his love for IT. “I’ve learnt a lot in the past two and a half years and there are a number of people there who helped me grow,” he says.

By the time you read this, Khan will have finished another one of his motorcycling journeys to Milford Sound, finishing the year off with his family and his other great passion: motorcycling.