TE Connectivity Joins Avnet Express' Drive for Innovation Program

PHOENIX and SAN FRANCISCO--Sept. 13, 2011 -- Avnet Express and UBM Electronics, a UBM company and the daily source of essential business and technical information for the electronics industry's decision makers, today announced that TE Connectivity , formerly Tyco Electronics, has joined the Drive for Innovation, a multi-faceted campaign celebrating innovation in electronics engineering as a supplier sponsor. The Drive for Innovation is sponsored by Avnet Express, the e-Commerce engine for Avnet Electronics Marketing, an operating group of Avnet, Inc. .

Throughout the year-long Drive for Innovation road trip Brian Fuller, editorial director, UBM Electronics' EE Times, is driving a fire-engine-red General Motors' Chevrolet Volt to innovation hubs across America, interviewing engineers, entrepreneurs and innovators in electronics.

TE Connectivity's participation in the Drive for Innovation program highlights the importance of interconnect, passive and electromechanical (IP&E) vendors as valued suppliers that the automotive industry uses to support its system-design success. To learn more about the Drive for Innovation's stop at TE Connectivity and the HVA 280 three-position connector, click here.

"As a source for innovative technologies for the automotive industry, TE Connectivity is excited about supporting the Drive for Innovation program.  Providing transportation solutions such as electronic components that power electric vehicles is a core part of TE's business -- as well as application tooling and custom engineered solutions for the automotive, aerospace, defense and marine industries," said Canda Carr, Director, Global Distribution Sales and Strategy, TE Connectivity.

TE Connectivity designs and manufactures over 500,000 products that connect and protect the flow of power and data inside products -- from consumer electronics, energy and healthcare to automotive, aerospace and communication networks -- enabling smarter, faster, better technologies to connect products to possibilities.

Beth Ely, senior vice president of Avnet Express, added, "Avnet's longstanding relationship with TE Connectivity, and our mutual respect for -- and pursuit of -- innovation, made this coupling a no-brainer. With TE on board, the Drive for Innovation program will expose more engineers, students, purchasing professionals and hobbyists to Avnet's extensive line of leading-edge IP&E technologies."

As the e-Commerce engine for Avnet Electronics Marketing, Avnet Express gives design engineers and purchasing professionals access to the world's largest catalog of electronic component products, which tops five million parts. Avnet Express offers parametric searching capabilities and the ability to upload a bill of materials (BOM) for easier sourcing of products and a consistent global platform of localized content. The site can be accessed in nine languages and 13 currencies.

Check Drive For Innovation for upcoming locations and sign up to follow the stories and request the Volt to pull into your town or city for a visit. Upcoming stops on the "Drive for Innovation" Road Trip include:

• Pennsylvania
• Massachusetts
• New Hampshire
• Vermont
• and more