‘Phil was driven and passionate and cared about the business, but he cared more about the people, and he knew that family always came first,’ says ePlus CEO Mark Marron. ‘He was always talking about his wife, his kids and his grandkids.’
Peterson and Norton were sharing stories about their families at the time. Peterson told Norton that his son, Michael, was balking at attending Jesuit High School of Tampa, Fla. Norton immediately asked for his son’s name and address.
A week later, his son received a letter from Naval Academy and Pro Football Hall of Fame quarterback Roger Staubach, a teammate of Norton’s on the legendary 1964 Naval Academy Cotton Bowl team, extolling the virtues of a Catholic Jesuit education.
Needless to say, the letter from Staubach, who was a product of a Catholic Jesuit education himself, convinced Michael to attend Jesuit High School. Michael went on to become a football player at Georgia Tech and on to a successful career in the information technology business, including a stint at Google.
Peterson said Norton was always asking about his family and building a bond that went well beyond business. “Phil was a family-first, compassionate leader who was all about mentoring, developing and helping people,” said Peterson. “He was a compassionate leader. ‘Compassionate’ is a word that gets overused, but with Phil it was real. You can’t have compassion unless you genuinely care about people. Phil was concerned with your success as much as anything else.”
Peterson is one of many industry executives who are remembering Norton, 82, who passed away Feb. 26 after a long battle with Parkinson’s disease, as a channel titan, family man and caring leader who left an indelible mark on the business beyond the balance sheet.
Norton co-founded the leasing company, MLC Holdings, that eventually became ePlus, Herndon, Va., No. 30 on the 2025 CRN Solution Provider 500. Norton’s vision to lead the company into the IT solutions market was a defining moment that paid off handsomely for ePlus.
That move into the IT solutions market took ePlus from $42.8 million when Norton became CEO in 1993 to $1.2 billion in 2016 when he handed the reins to current CEO Mark Marron.
Norton’s financial acumen and ability to always keep ePlus at the leading edge of the technology solutions market, delivering ever more productivity benefits for customers, allowed him to take the company public in 1996. That made Norton one of the few executives to successfully navigate the treacherous terrain to bring a solution provider to the public market.
A Family Man And A Leader Who Cared Deeply About Employees
Marron, for his part, said Norton was first and foremost a family man and a leader who cared deeply about all of the company’s employees.
“Phil was driven and passionate and cared about the business, but he cared more about the people, and he knew that family always came first,” said Marron. “He was always talking about his wife, his kids and his grandkids and whenever there was any way to help people that worked for us or with us in the partner community, he was always willing to share his knowledge and help in any way he could.”
Norton’s obituary on the Dignity Memorial website noted that one of Norton’s “greatest passions” from the late 1970s to the early 1990s was coaching his three sons in basketball and soccer. “He relished the role of coach and took great joy in watching his sons and their friends grow and learn life lessons through sports. … Of his many roles, it was those of husband, father and grandfather that were his most cherished and important,” said the obituary.
That family-first focus extended to ePlus. The annual ePlus club trips rewarding top sellers were always family affairs with wives and children attending the getaways. And it was an unspoken Norton rule that employees could take time out of the working day for pickups, drop-offs or family activities.
That care for team members led to a tenure for ePlus employees well above the industry norm, with many sales reps taking care of the same customer accounts for decades, developing unbreakable bonds with clients.
During the financial crisis of 2009, when many solution providers laid off employees, Norton held the line, preserving the people- first ePlus culture.
Marron credited Norton with building the cultural foundation that is still at the heart of ePlus’ success today. “The cultural foundation that Phil laid down was everything,” he said. “Phil was ePlus. He built it from the ground up. He was a force of nature. He was always learning to drive us to where we needed to go.”
Marron said he has been a firsthand recipient of that ePlus people-first culture. “I never felt like it was a job,” said Marron. “I came to work every day and enjoyed it. Going to work was about building something, having fun and enjoying our families.”
Norton, a voracious reader who had an uncanny knack for skating to where the technology puck was going, was constantly sharing his ideas and knowledge with ePlus employees, empowering them to drive the business forward.
“Phil was always reading and talking to people to learn where the market was going and where we should go as a company, and he was always sharing it with employees,” said Marron.
“With Phil it wasn’t always business; he took an interest in you,’ said a former ePlus employee. “Phil would stop in to see you and check in on you. If you stopped by his office, he would spend time with you. That is just who he was. There was not a time when he didn’t make time for his people.”
One of the keys to ePlus’ success was Norton’s ability to build the business through acquisitions, one after another with the majority of the 31 acquisitions the company has completed done under his tenure.
Donald Lott, a director of presales engineering at ePlus, shared on a LinkedIn post how he joined ePlus when Norton acquired California value-added reseller SourceOne 25 years ago. When Norton visited the company for the first time, he gave each of the SourceOne employees 100 shares of ePlus stock and shared his vision of the future.
“We were only the ninth office, but the very first out West,” said Lott in the LinkedIn post. “It’s absolutely staggering to look back at the 25 years of growth that followed what Phil built. Even if us folks in California didn’t always perfectly fit the mold Phil had in mind, he trusted us, let us do our thing, and we’ve prospered ever since.”
A Leader With ‘An Enormous Heart’
Frank Rauch, a 30-year-plus industry veteran and former channel chief for VMware and HP, remembered Norton as a “great mentor” to him and many others. “Phil had an enormous heart,” said Rauch, who started working with Norton in the early 1990s. “He was always there to coach, guide and give a kind word. He was strong, but it wasn’t about himself. It was about everybody else. With Phil, it wasn’t about a title or power. It was about solid, quiet, true leadership. He didn’t have to bang a drum. People wanted to work hard for him and make ePlus successful from the very early beginnings.”
Rauch, who played an occasional round of golf with Norton at the Congressional Country Club in Bethesda, Md., said Norton’s sphere of influence extended to the vendor community because of his knowledge of the business. “If Phil said, ‘Turn left,’ everybody at ePlus and the vendor community would turn and trust that was the right direction,” he said. “Phil had a great financial mind. He was not the kind of guy that just lived by the numbers, but he knew the numbers well enough that he could predict the future.”
Rauch said the industry could use more leaders like Norton. “Phil was true to his people and true to his company; he never sold out,” said Rauch. “When you talked to Phil Norton, you knew you were talking to somebody that was special. It was true leadership, and he took that true leadership along with his vision and caring for employees to create something really unique.”
One of the early keys to ePlus’ success was a strong partnership with networking market leader Cisco Systems that helped push ePlus into one new emerging technology after another. In fact, Norton’s strategy was to put ePlus offices in the same building or across the street from the Cisco office to build strong ties.
John Brookbank, vice president of sales, Americas distribution for Cisco, who worked across the street from ePlus and often would visit ePlus, called Norton a great people-first leader who was ever present with a strong vision and insight.
“Phil always put people first,” said Brookbank. “He greeted you every time you went to the ePlus office. He would always come up to me and ask, ‘How was ePlus doing and how can ePlus do better?’ His presence alone made you feel welcome and that he really cared about your business. It’s a people business at the end of the day. You have to make sure you build that trust and earn that respect. That is what Phil stood for.”
Brookbank said Norton built an amazing team of strong leaders at ePlus that have continued to power the company forward. “Phil built a solid team at ePlus,” he said. “That is what leaders do. Without your people, you’ve got nothing. I think Phil realized that. He knew he wasn’t going to win everything, but he wanted to make sure he put his best team forward each and every day.”
No story on Norton’s life would be complete without what his obituary called his “devotion” to his wife, Patricia, whom he met on Cape Cod in 1963 and married in 1966, and who was the “center of his life” for the 57 years of their marriage until Patricia passed away in 2023.
“The unwavering strength of their marriage was the solid foundation on which they built their family, raised and nurtured their three sons, and doted upon their seven grandchildren,” the obituary read. “As a father, he was ever present as role model, coach and supporter. As a grandfather, he made it his mission never to miss a game, school play or any other life milestone. Caring for his family was his greatest happiness.”
Peterson, for his part, said Norton’s deep “caring” for family and others directly benefited his family and changed the course of his son’s life. “I owe a lot to Phil,” said Peterson. “He planted that seed with my son and obviously it grew into something significant. I am forever in debt to him. He was just an amazing person.”
A Mass of Christian Burial will be held for Phil Norton on Thursday, March 5, at 11:00 a.m. at the Saint Luke Catholic Church, McLean, Va.
