Ian Kieninger

CEO and Co-Founder AVANT Communications

Last Reviewed: September 29, 2026

Executive Summary

Ian Kieninger is co-founder and CEO of AVANT, the Chicago company that calls itself the nation’s premier Technology Services Distributor. AVANT sits in the middle of the IT channel: rather than selling to enterprises directly, it supplies research, tools, training and sales support to a network of independent Trusted Advisors who help businesses choose communications, cloud, security, contact center and AI services. Kieninger founded it in 2009 with Drew Lydecker, a colleague from CDW, and has since taken it through two rounds of private equity backing, from Pamlico Capital in 2021 and from Court Square Capital Partners in 2025, while the founders kept significant ownership and control of day-to-day operations.

Career Highlights

• CEO and co-founder of AVANT, founded in Chicago in 2009.
• Secured a strategic growth investment from Pamlico Capital in October 2021, and a further growth investment led by Court Square Capital Partners, with Pamlico reinvesting, in December 2025.
• At CDW, built one of the largest carrier services, mobility and telephony practices in the country.
• At AT&T, held management roles spanning enterprise and global sales, product management and the indirect channel.
• Co-founder of the Technology Channel Association and a member of CompTIA’s Telecom Advisory Council.
• Named a 2022 Channel Influencer by Channel Futures.

Professional Journey

Kieninger began in telecommunications at AT&T, where AVANT’s biography says he held management roles across enterprise and global sales, product management and the indirect channel. That last piece matters to what came later: the indirect channel, in which carriers sell through independent agents and resellers rather than their own sales force, is the market AVANT was built to serve.

He then moved to CDW, the IT reseller, where he met Drew Lydecker. There, according to AVANT, he built one of the largest carrier services, mobility and telephony practices in the country, with teams designing unified communications, mobility, IP telephony and telecommunications solutions. A 2023 Profile Magazine feature describes the pair building one of the largest trusted advisor practices at CDW before leaving to start their own firm.

AVANT was founded in 2009 in Chicago. Its model is to equip the Trusted Advisors, the independent consultants and agents who advise businesses on technology purchases, with original research, channel sales assistance, training and decision tools, and to act as the distributor connecting them to service providers. The categories it covers have widened over time from communications services toward cloud infrastructure, security, unified communications, contact center and AI.

In October 2021 Pamlico Capital made a strategic growth investment in the company. The announcement reported 62% employee growth over the preceding two years, and Kieninger said the expertise of AVANT’s Trusted Advisors was “at its highest level of demand”. In December 2025 AVANT announced a new strategic growth partnership with Court Square Capital Partners, with Pamlico reinvesting; Kieninger called it “the next phase in AVANT’s evolution”. In both transactions he and Lydecker retained significant ownership and continued to run the business.

Outside AVANT he has worked on the channel’s own institutions. He co-founded the Technology Channel Association, which AVANT describes as the indirect channel industry’s first trade association, and serves on CompTIA’s Telecom Advisory Council. Channel Futures named him one of its 50 Channel Influencers for 2022.

Education

No education record was found in the company biography, the investment announcements or the published interviews read for this profile.