Avnet Wins Corporate Social Responsibility Award.

PR News Recognizes Avnet for Bringing 14 Companies Together to Help Maricopa Community College Students Showcase Talents, Gain Experience and Receive Scholarships

PHOENIX -- Avnet, Inc. (NYSE:AVT), a leading global technology distributor, received a Corporate Social Responsibility Award

from PR News, the leading publication covering the public relations trade. Winning in the Stakeholder Engagement category, Avnet was honored for bringing 14 partners, customers and vendors together to support the Avnet Tech Games, a technology-related team competition for students attending Maricopa Community Colleges.

The Corporate Social Responsibility Awards are the only national honor celebrating corporate social responsibility, in which corporations successfully demonstrate that altruism, philanthropy and employee commitment to "do good" can go a long way towards making an impact on a community, key stakeholders and a company's bottom line.

After discovering that very little corporate giving goes to community colleges, Avnet worked with Maricopa Community Colleges, the largest community college system in the United States, to create the Avnet Tech Games and provide students with an opportunity to showcase their talents, gain experience outside the classroom and receive greatly needed scholarships.

"Avnet has a history of good corporate citizenship, including a well-established community affairs program focusing on education and children's issues - although it has long supported primary and secondary education as well as Arizona State University, the Avnet Tech Games presented an opportunity for us to help an underserved population within education," said Al Maag, chief communications officer at Avnet. "By persuading others within the business community to get involved, we were able to make the Avnet Tech Games a much bigger event - and help more students in the process. Avnet is pleased to be recognized by PR News for its efforts, but even more pleased to have made a difference for Maricopa Community Colleges."

The corporate community rallied around the inaugural event, donating services, parts and equipment for the competition and money for scholarships. More than 300 students and faculty participated, with 19 winning students each receiving a $1,000 scholarship. Twenty-four corporate judges evaluated their work, and 30 executives from the sponsoring companies attended the career fair and awards program. The event was such a success that Avnet sponsored it again in 2007, with 12 companies participating and 21 scholarships awarded.

However, the Avnet Tech Games benefit the companies involved just as much as the students.

"Companies get a good look at tomorrow's leaders, who also provide them with fresh perspectives on product design and marketing," said Maag. "Five students were hired by sponsor companies - including Avnet - the first year, and the relationships forged between the professional and academic worlds are invaluable."

More information about the Avnet Tech Games is available at www.avnettechgames.com.

About Avnet

With more than 250 locations serving customers in 70 countries, Avnet markets, distributes and adds value to the products of the world's leading electronic component suppliers, enterprise computer manufacturers and embedded subsystem providers. Additionally, Avnet brings a breadth and depth of service capabilities, such as supply-chain optimization, logistics solutions, product assembly, device programming, computer system integration and engineering design assistance. For the fiscal year ended July 1, 2006, Avnet generated revenue of $14.25 billion. Visit www.avnet.com/.