CompTIA's 2017 includes Karen Drewitt, Nick Beaugeard and Craig Somerville

CompTIA has elected a new chairperson and five new members to its 2017 Australia and New Zealand executive council.

Existing member Karen Drewitt, general manager at The Missing Link, has been appointed chair for 2017, and former chair Nick Beaugeard, HubOne's chief executive, will take on the vice chair role.

Drewitt said: "I am excited to be taking on the role of chair in 2017. I welcome the new members and look forward to working them to drive CompTIA forward in the region."

The five new members are Qirx channel manager Shelly Duncan, ASI Solutions director of technical services Daniel Johns, Somerville ISNet chief executive Craig Somerville, Microsoft strategic market development manager Emma Tomlin and Veeam Software vice president Australia and New Zealand Don Williams.

The newly appointed members will join existing members announced in 2015: DocuSign APAC senior marketing manager Grant Cleary, Citrix channel sales manager Belinda Jurisic, Nexus IT owner Sean Murphy, Staples head of technology solutions Karl Sice and Arrow ECS ANZ managing director Nick Verykios.

Moheb Moses, Channel Dynamics and CompTIA Community director for the Australia and New Zealand channel, said: "The purpose of CompTIA in ANZ is to foster channel business development through networking and collaboration, which is largely facilitated by this team of people.

"I’m very excited by the calibre and industry experience of our new executive council, and I look forward to working with them to make the ANZ channel community even stronger in 2017, and help make CompTIA the industry of choice for the channel."

Westcon alliances director Phil Cameron and former Avnet director Mark Johnston are stepping down. 

CompTIA launched its Australian arm in November 2014 and its executive council supports the channel community by encouraging collaboration between IT resellers, solution providers, distributors, vendors and channel associates.

The regional community currently has 410 premier members and more than 1400 registered users.