Meet Our Sources
Rich Adduci joined Boston Scientific in 2006 as Boston Scientific's chief information officer (CIO). In his role as CIO, Rich has led the transformation of Boston Scientific's IS organization, creating a Global IS organization focused on delivering competitive advantage for Boston Scientific through information and technology.
Rich serves as a member of Boston Scientific's Operating Committee, Quality Management Board, and Capital Committee. Rich is actively engaged in shaping direction in the information technology community at large through his active participation in the SAP Life Sciences Advisory Committee, Model N Strategic Planning Team, and the Babson CIMS Advisory Board. Prior to joining Boston Scientific, Rich was a partner at Accenture.
Rich earned a bachelor of science in industrial engineering from Purdue University and an MBA from the University of Chicago with concentrations in finance and economics. Rich is an active member of his community and presently serves on the Boston area American Heart Association executive board.
Ramón Baez has been chief information officer and vice president for information technology services of Kimberly-Clark Corp. since February 15, 2007. He is responsible for leading Kimberly-Clark's enterprise-wide information systems initiatives to support its future growth and to maximize the return on its information technology investments.
Ramón began his career at Northrop Grumman Corporation. He served as chief information officer of Thermo Fisher Scientific, Inc., where he was responsible for coordinating and directing worldwide information systems. Ramón also served as chief information officer and vice president for Information Technology of Honeywell International Automation and Control Solutions group, where he led the Global IT organization of this diversified industrial, service, and solutions company. He serves as a member of the National Advisory Board at HMG Strategy LLC. Ramón holds a bachelor of science degree in business administration from University of La Verne in California.
Mike Blake came to the Hyatt CIO role from his prior position as vice president of finance for global marketing, brand standards & IT for Hyatt Corporation. Mike has over 20 years of experience in finance and technology in various roles and is charged with providing strategic leadership and sound perspective that contributes to the management and evolution of Hyatt's global IT functions. He is responsible for driving innovation and supporting revenue growth.
Prior to his role with Hyatt, Mike was senior vice president of IT for First Data, vice president of IT finance at Kaiser Permanente, and director of IT finance for Sears, based in Chicago, Illinois. In each of his roles, he was the highest-ranking IT finance resource and key internal consultant and advisor to national senior leadership teams. Prior to that, Mike was director of financial planning & analysis for Commerx, a B2B startup, and director of financial planning for United Airlines.
Becky Blalock is the former senior vice president and chief information officer of Southern Company, where she directed information technology strategy and operations across 120,000 square miles and nine subsidiaries. In her role as CIO, she led more than 1,100 employees in information technology delivery at one of America's most respected companies. Becky provided broad leadership in many positions including accounting, finance, marketing, corporate communication, external affairs, the office of the CEO, and customer service.
A graduate of Leadership Atlanta and Leadership Georgia, she was named a Fellow of the International Women's Forum Leadership Foundation in 2001. Becky has received a host of honors, including 2009 CIO of the Year in the electric utility industry by Energy Biz magazine, 2007 CIO of the Year by Computers for Youth, and 2003 Georgia CIO of the Year, Global Category by the Georgia CIO Leadership Association. She is listed among the Who's Who in Science and Engineering. In 2006, she was inducted as one of Computerworld magazine's Premier 100 IT Leaders. Atlanta Woman magazine named her their Power Woman of the Year and she received the Shining Star Award from the Atlanta Women's Foundation. She successfully completed the Program for Management Development at Harvard University. She holds a master's degree with honors in business administration from Mercer University and an undergraduate degree in business administration from State University of West Georgia.
Brian Bonner is the chief information officer at Texas Instruments. He is responsible for global management of all aspects of IT and is a member of the company's strategic leadership team.
Prior to becoming CIO at Texas Instruments, he served as the company's vice president, analog acquisition integrations. Before that, he was the company's vice president, worldwide mass marketing.
He is a graduate of The Fuqua School of Business at Duke University. Brian began his professional career as an engineer at Chrysler and joined Texas Instruments in 1995. In addition to his MBA, he holds a bachelor's degree in physics from Kalamazoo College and a master's degree in electrical engineering from the University of Michigan.
Robert B. (Rob) Carter is executive vice president of FedEx Information Services and chief information officer of FedEx Corp. He is a member of the five-person executive committee, which plans and executes the corporation's strategic business activities. He is responsible for setting technology direction, as well as the corporation's key applications and technology infrastructure. FedEx applications, advanced networks, and data centers provide around-the-clock and around-the-globe support for the product offerings of FedEx. Rob joined FedEx in 1993 and has over 30 years of systems development and implementation experience.
Rob was born in Taiwan. He earned his bachelor's degree in computer and information science from the University of Florida and his master's degree from the University of South Florida. His professional awards include: Fast Company magazine named #18 on “100 Most Creative People in Business” (2010); Information Week Chief of the Year Award (2000, 2001, 2005); CIO magazine's 100 Award (2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2006); and InfoWorld Chief Technology Officer of the Year (2000). He is a member of the Saks Inc. board of directors and the University of Florida Foundation board of trustees. Rob also serves as chairman of the capital campaign for the University of Tennessee Hamilton Eye Institute and as a member of the Memphis Riverfront Development Corporation and the LifeBlood Foundation.
Trae Chancellor is the VP of global enterprise strategy of Salesforce.com. He joined Salesforce.com as CIO in 2006. Under his leadership, the IT division successfully transitioned its operations to the cloud. Building on Salesforce.com's own platform as a service, Force.com, Trae and his team deployed new automation systems that effectively supported the business as it grew from $400 million in annual revenue to $1 billion.
In his current role, Trae shares his experience of “taking it to the cloud” with large enterprises, helping them construct best-practices models for successfully adopting cloud-based computing. Additionally, Trae will transform these best practices into market-meeting requirements for Salesforce.com's emerging applications and development platform.
In 2009, Trae won Information Week's top innovator award in high tech and was number five overall for his leadership in cloud computing and IT transformation. Prior to Salesforce.com, Trae was VP of IT application engineering at PeopleSoft/Oracle. While there, he drove the implementation of enterprise client/server applications for the business. Trae also led the team responsible for merging J.D. Edwards' IT environment into PeopleSoft. As a pioneer in software-as-a-service (SaaS) technology and operational models, Trae was part of the original engineering team at ExpertCity (acquired by Citrix) who built GoToMyPC and GoToMeeting.
Trae holds a BS degree in nuclear engineering from Texas A&M.
Nicholas R. Colisto is a senior information technology executive with experience providing innovative, business-driven IT solutions. He serves as the vice president and chief information officer at Hovnanian Enterprises, Inc., a large residential homebuilder.
Prior to joining Hovnanian, Colisto held key information technology leadership positions at large organizations, including Pepsi-Cola, Priceline.com, Hyperion Solutions, Boehringer-Ingelheim, and Bayer Corporation (formerly Sterling Winthrop).
Colisto is very active in the information technology, education, and health care communities. He has served on the Governing Body for the CIO Leadership Network and has been a speaker at the executive summits. He is a member of the Society for Information Management (SIM) and has served on its programs committee. Colisto taught a master's program in information technology at Manhattanville College in New York for several years and also served on its advisory board. He lectured at Columbia University's CIO Leadership Workshop. He currently serves on the Industrial Advisory Board at Rutgers University, on the Educational Advisory Board at Brookdale College in New Jersey, and on the Foundation Board of Trustees for Bayshore Community Hospital.
He is the recipient of many industry awards, including the 2011 Computerworld Premier 100 IT Leaders Award, 2010 CIO 100 by IDG's CIO Magazine, 2009 InfoWorld 100, 2009, and 2010 InformationWeek 500, and the 2011 InfoWorld Green 15 Award.
Colisto holds a B.B.A in management information systems and an M.S. in information systems from Pace University.
He lives with his wife and two children in Marlboro, New Jersey.
Jim Comfort received his Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1988. He joined IBM Research in 1988 and worked across the boundaries from Research to Systems and Technology Group on new product introduction in a variety of development and product management roles. Jim held a number of executive positions within IBM Systems Group, spanning technology development, systems development, and product line management, as well as roles in IBM Corporate Strategy. For the past two years, he was part of the Enterprise Initiatives team in Corporate Strategy, defining IBM's cloud computing strategy from technology, offerings, and business model perspectives. He is currently vice president, Integrated Delivery Platforms, Cloud Computing. He is responsible for technical and investment strategy to accelerate and expand asset utilization in IBM's outsourcing business, defining roadmaps that consistently deliver innovations such as cloud computing capabilities to IBM's outsourcing innovation.
Barbra Cooper is group VP and CIO for Toyota Motor Sales (TMS) North America., Inc. She is responsible for the strategy, development, and operation of all systems and technology that support TMS.
With a career spanning more than 30 years in IT, Barbra joined Toyota in 1996 as VP of IS. Previously, she held the position of group VP and CIO for MicroAge Corp., CIO for Maricopa County in Phoenix, VP of Technology for American Express, and director of IS for Miller & Paine.
Barbra was named one of the Top 100 Women in Computing in 1996, a national honor recognizing women in the IS field who have achieved both technical expertise and advanced management positions. Additionally, she was honored as one of Computerworld's Premier IT Leaders in 2001. Cooper received the CIO 100 Award in 2005. CIO Insight magazine ranked her sixth of the top 100 global CIOs in 2007, and CIO magazine's Executive Council awarded her the 2007 Distinguished Member Award for Most Valuable Content. She has also been recognized for her automotive industry achievements, including the 2000, 2005, and 2007 Automotive News awards for the 100 Leading Women in the automotive industry. Barbra was inducted into the CIO Hall of Fame in 2007 for strongly influencing the evolution of this young profession over the last decade and for expanding IT strategic possibilities.
Tim Crawford is VP of information technology and CIO of All Covered, a division of Konica Minolta Business Solutions USA Inc.
He has over 20 years of information technology experience in operations, infrastructure, information security, and core applications. Areas of focus include cloud computing, infrastructure optimization, and key game-changing strategies for IT organizations.
Tim regularly speaks at industry conferences and has written for leading publications. Tim serves on a number of boards, including the Society for Information Management (SIM) and Data Center Pulse.
Tim received an MBA in international business with honors and a bachelor of science degree in computer information systems, both from Golden Gate University.
Martin Davis is the EVP, technology and operations group of Wells Fargo & Company. He provides executive leadership to the Technology Integration Office and is accountable for overseeing technology integration efforts for Wells Fargo, ensuring the highest level of security for customer data, continuing the availability of systems, and minimizing transition risk for the enterprise.
Prior to Wachovia's acquisition by Wells Fargo, Martin was Wachovia's corporate CIO, where he led more than 2,700 employees and oversaw Wachovia's application development and maintenance activities. Martin was accountable for the strategic and business processes within the CIO organization and was responsible for the con sistency, standardization, and prioritization of all centrally driven technology initia tives across the enterprise. Martin began his career with Wachovia in 1985 and served in a number of roles supporting technology functions for Wachovia's Commercial, Wealth, and Brokerage groups.
He received his bachelor of arts degree in business administration from Winston-Salem State University in North Carolina and is a graduate of the Young Executives Institute and the Executive Leadership Program at the University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill. He has been recognized as one of the 50 Most Important African Americans in Technology by US Black Engineer magazine and as one of the 75 Most Powerful African Americans in Corporate America by Black Enterprise magazine.
Stephen J. Gold is the senior vice president and chief information officer of Avaya. He is responsible for all aspects of Avaya's technology strategy, as well as leading IT excellence across Avaya business operations and systems globally. This includes identifying and prioritizing strategic IT initiatives to ensure Avaya remains at the forefront of technology while driving efficiencies across business functions.
Prior to joining Avaya, Stephen was executive vice president, CIO, and corporate chief technology officer of GSI Commerce. He also served as senior vice president and CIO for Medco Health Solutions, and he has held other positions of increasing responsibility at Medco, Dun & Bradstreet, and Sandoz Pharmaceuticals.
Stephen holds a BS in computer science from St. John's University.
In January 2009, Leslie Gordon was named vice president, application and infrastructure services management, reporting to the IBM CIO. The mission of her global organization is to deliver world-class IT services and enable IBM's internal transformation by leveraging IT to support IBM's enterprise strategy.
In prior roles, she has been an executive in the Storage and Technology organization, responsible for leading growth initiatives to leverage the power of optimization and virtualization across the infrastructure layer. The Enterprise Computing Model project was launched in 3Q 2007 to address current client priorities (enhance “green” corporate standing, reduce IT infrastructure costs, optimization, virtualization, power and cooling constraints) as well as an opportunity for IBM to collaborate more effectively across the entire depth and breadth of technology, financial, and business solutions for clients. This transformational project encompassed significant implementation within the IBM Global Account, the Strategic Outsourcing (services) client base, and continuing development of solutions for the external client marketplace.
Leslie has held multiple leadership and management roles in hardware and software product development primarily in the IBM printer and copier business areas and later in the IBM Publishing Systems Business Unit headquartered in Boulder, Colorado. In addition, Leslie has extensive experience in a wide range of services-related management roles in the Americas as well as an international assignment to Sydney, Australia. These include project executive roles at two large outsourcing contracts in the banking and aerospace industries, and senior delivery project executive and delivery management. She is also a certified project manager.
Leslie graduated with a bachelor of science degree in mechanical engineering from Duke University. She joined IBM in 1982 as a manufacturing engineer in Charlotte, North Carolina, and has had extensive experience across multiple business areas and divisions of IBM.
Allan Hackney is SVP and chief information officer at John Hancock Financial Services with oversight of the company's Wealth Management and Insurance technical teams. In this role, Allan is accountable for developing and executing strategies that increase productivity and efficiency, improve operating risk management, and enhance the technical talent across the entire enterprise. Allan joined John Hancock from AIG Consumer Finance Group where, as CIO, he championed the effort to reposition autonomous banking and lending operations into a more integrated global expansion platform to enable significant expansion.
Allan graduated with a bachelor's degree from Colgate University. He is a Faculty Fellow at The Levin Institute, the State University of New York's international graduate business school in New York City. Allan is also on the regional board of BuildOn, a nonprofit organization that empowers youth in the United States to make a positive difference in their communities while helping people of developing countries increase their self-reliance through education.
Kim Hammonds is chief information officer of The Boeing Company. Hammonds is responsible for the IT strategy, operations, processes, and more than 8,500 IT people of the world's largest aerospace company. She has responsibility for supporting the growth of Boeing's business by partnering with the business units on IT-related revenue-generating programs and oversees all aspects of information security across the global reach of the company.
Prior to joining Boeing, she was director of Americas Manufacturing Operations at Dell, where she was responsible for global systems development for service logistics, supply chain, and quality systems. She was also responsible for IT production support for all 18 global manufacturing operations.
Kim received an MBA from Western Michigan University and a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Michigan.
As Avanade's chief technology officer, Tyson Hartman is responsible for Avanade's technology vision, solutions, and R&D investments. Focusing on how best to leverage the latest Microsoft technology to solve customer problems, Tyson leads the incubation and engineering teams to deliver differentiated solutions across the complete enterprise IT life cycle.
Tyson joined Avanade in June 2000 and has held various positions in his more than ten years with the company. Prior to his role as Global CTO, he served as Americas CTO, leading teams on major technology, strategy, and quality initiatives. As a member of Avanade's first engineering group, he was instrumental in developing solutions and assets for some of Avanade's first key customers. Previously, Tyson was with Accenture, where he focused on e-commerce and high-volume online transaction processing systems in the high-tech, communications, and consumer products industries.
Tyson is a sought-after expert and author, with particular expertise in subjects such as cloud computing, SOA, application integration, and high-volume transaction systems. Tyson holds a bachelor's degree in computer science and computer engineering from the University of Southern California.
Donagh Herlihy is SVP and CIO at Avon Products, Inc. He leads an IT organization of 1,500 professionals and is responsible for global IT strategy and operations. His team provides the business systems and technology infrastructure supporting Avon's business operations in more than 60 countries and is responsible for enabling online business for more than six million Avon representatives worldwide. Major initiatives include driving growth through Web and mobile platforms for Avon representatives and consumers and driving efficiency through global ERP.
Prior to joining Avon in 2008, he drove the organizational and business process transformation at the Wrigley Company as CIO, VP of human resources, and VP of supply chain strategy and planning. Herlihy also spent six years at Gillette, leading IT at its Duracell subsidiary. Earlier in his career, while based in the UK, he worked in manufacturing, business process reengineering, and IT in the consumer goods and automotive sectors.
Donagh holds a BS in industrial engineering from the Dublin Institute of Technology and Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland, and has completed the Executive Program at the University of Michigan, Ross School of Business. He is a board member of the American Red Cross in Westchester, New York.
John F. Hill is Global CIO of Veyance Technologies, the exclusive manufacturer of Goodyear Engineered Products worldwide. He was a former chief technology officer at Siemens IT Solutions and Services, where he was responsible for all technology aspects of the firm's IT services clients and the 4,700 Siemens IT Solutions and Services employees in North America. Throughout his career, John has consistently demonstrated innovative approaches to IT strategies that drive business competitiveness.
Prior to joining Siemens, he was vice president and CIO at Praxair, Inc., the largest supplier of industrial gases in North and South America, with $6 billion in revenue and 24,500 employees. Prior to Praxair, he was vice president of IT at the Perkin-Elmer Corporation, leading a global team of IT professionals serving employees in 14 countries. John has also run a successful independent IT consultancy. His early IT experiences include positions with Combustion Engineering, Pitney Bowes, and Andersen Consulting. He has also served on the board of directors for numerous technology firms.
John received a BA from Princeton University where he majored in politics and minored in mathematics.
Mark Hillman leads strategy and implementation teams for Compuware products and services. Mark ensures Compuware's extensive portfolio continues solving operational challenges as applications and infrastruc ture increase in complexity. He collaborates with customers, analysts, and industry thought leaders to identify the most pressing IT challenges businesses face today in order to ensure the strategy and implementation of Compuware products and services provide superior value.
Prior to Compuware Corporation, Mark held senior IT executive positions at General Motors, including director of GM Global Computing Operations and director of Supply Chain Operations. Before General Motors, Mark served in marketing, product management, and information technology at Texas Instruments.
During his 21 years with Chevron, Randy Krotowski has held a variety of technology and business management positions. As manager, Strategic Planning for Chevron's IT division, he led a $270 million effort to upgrade Chevron's global infrastructure and Web application development capabilities. He has held management positions in organizational development, marketing, engineering, joint ventures, Total Quality Management, and large capital project management.
Randy holds a bachelor's degree in chemical engineering from the University of Toronto and a master's in business administration from Golden Gate University. He is active in a number of engineering, IT, and project management associations. He chairs the Technology Strategy and Transformation Standing Committee.
Tony Leng is a managing director of Diversified Search and heads the CIO, Technology, and Private Equity practices. He also leads the firm's San Francisco office. Previously, Tony was Managing Partner of Hodge Partners.
His clients include public and private companies where he has placed board members and C-level executives. He has conducted senior management assignments for Hypercom, JDA Software, MSquared, QRS, Broadvision, Delta Dental, Catholic Healthcare West, Kaiser Permanente, Visa, Symmetricom, Key Principal Partners, OpenTV, Cerberus Capital, The Riverside Company, Vistage, and the Young Presidents' Organization.
Prior to his executive search experience, Tony was a board member of three public companies and CEO of a $600 million public diversified IT company that controlled businesses in software, communications, services, distribution, integration, defense technology, and outsourcing. Before that, Tony ran a more than $1 billion division of a telephone company focused on corporate users and had responsibility for all data services and networking products. While at the telephone company, he was founder and chairman of its ISP and a board member of its two million–subscriber cell phone–associated company. Previously, Tony was the CEO of a multibranch, 600-person credit bureau that provided consumer and commercial information. During his five-year tenure, he grew the enterprise value fivefold.
Tony uses his operating and board experience, combined with the knowledge that he has gained in the search industry, to drill down and understand at a nuanced level what his clients are seeking to achieve as they build their teams and boards. His experience in working at both large and small companies has made him particularly effective in understanding the challenges and leadership requirements that businesses face as they grow.
Tony received a bachelor of commerce (with honors) from the University of Cape Town, South Africa. He is qualified as a chartered accountant and certified public accountant.
Tod Nielsen joined VMware in January 2009 as chief operating officer. Prior to VMware, he served as president and chief executive officer of Borland Software since November 2005. Prior to Borland, he held several key executive management positions at leading software companies including Microsoft, BEA, and Oracle. Tod brings more than 20 years of leadership experience in enterprise software and application development to VMware. Prior to Borland, he served as senior vice president, marketing and global sales support for Oracle Corporation.
Prior to Oracle, he was the chief marketing officer and executive vice president of engineering at BEA Systems, where he had overall responsibility for BEA's worldwide marketing strategy and operations, as well as all research and development operations. Tod joined BEA after the acquisition of his private company, Crossgain Inc., where he served as its chief executive officer. Tod also spent twelve years with Microsoft Corporation in various roles, including general manager of Database and Developer Tools, vice president of Developer Tools, and vice president of Microsoft's Platform Group.
Bertrand Odinet has served as vice president and chief information officer of Freeport McMoRan Copper & Gold since 2003. Since joining Freeport-McMoRan Copper and Gold in 1995, Bert has assumed responsibilities in corporate IT, operational improvement, merger integration, and financial shared services. Prior to joining FCX, Bert held several management positions with Arthur Andersen and Andersen Consulting, where he was a management consultant in the manufacturing, aerospace and defense, and oil and gas industries. He received his B.S. in civil engineering from Louisiana State University.
Tom Peck is the chief information officer (CIO) of Levi Strauss & Co., responsible for leading the company's global information technology operations and services. Tom reports to Chief Executive Officer John Anderson and is a member of the company's worldwide leadership team.
Tom has a history of creating technology solutions for global consumer and entertainment brands via large-scale investments in SAP and Oracle, vendor-managed inventory (VMI) and customer relationship management. Prior to joining Levi Strauss & Co., he was the CIO of MGM Mirage, supporting 70,000 employees across 17 global resorts such as the Bellagio and MGM Grand. As CIO, he led numerous innovations across hotel and casino operations as well as the company's 800+ retail and restaurant venues.
Before joining MGM Mirage, Tom held numerous roles within General Electric Company, including CIO of NBC Universal's global entertainment businesses, which included television, motion pictures, home entertainment, consumer products, and theme parks and resorts. While CIO, his team implemented a global enterprise-wide project that spanned 15 operating companies in 28 countries via SAP and other systems platforms, upgraded 25-year-old legacy systems, simplified numerous processes, and expanded VMI to more than 50 retail partners around the world.
Tom began his career in the United States Marine Corps holding numerous finance and technology jobs. He is also a certified Six Sigma Master Black Belt and is proficient in process optimization strategies such as lean supply chain. Tom earned his bachelor's degree from the United States Naval Academy with distinction in economics, and a master's degree in management from the Naval Postgraduate School.
Steve Phillips is senior vice president and chief information officer for Avnet, Inc. He is also a member of the Avnet executive board and a corporate officer.
In 2011, Computerworld named Steve a Premier 100 IT Leader. This lifetime recognition honors executives for exceptional technology leadership, innovative ideas to address business challenges, and effectively managing IT strategies.
Steve holds a BSc (Hons) in electronic engineering from Essex University and a postgraduate diploma in management studies from Thames Valley University. He is a Fellow of the Institution of Engineering & Technology.
Steve Phillpott is CIO for Amylin Pharmaceuticals, a leading provider of drugs for the treatment of diabetes. Mr. Phillpott has over 20 years of broad experience in information technology and management that includes Fortune 500 and large global manufacturing companies.
Prior to joining Amylin, Steve was CIO of Proflowers.com, a high-volume e-commerce retailer. Steve was VP of IT for Global Enterprise Applications at Invitrogen (now Life Technologies Corp). Prior to that, he held various leadership positions at companies, including Memec (Avnet), Gateway, and Qualcomm.
Steve received his BS in engineering from the U.S. Naval Academy and has his MBA in technology management.
Mark Polansky is a senior client partner and the managing director of Korn/Ferry International's Information Technology Center of Expertise for North America. With more than 25 years of executive search experience, all in technology, Mark has extensively recruited chief information officers, chief technology officers, and other senior IT leaders across a wide range of vertical industry sectors. He also has expertise in recruiting for both general and technical management for public and private high-tech companies, managed service providers, professional services organizations, venture firms, and their portfolio companies.
Before entering the search field, Mark spent 11 years in computer programming, systems management, and business development at two large information technology organizations engaged in the development, support, and marketing of information systems in the financial services and higher education sectors.
Mark previously taught computer science at Pratt Institute, Brooklyn College, and Southern Connecticut State University. He currently serves on the advisory board of Columbia University's executive graduate program in information technology management.
He frequently addresses conferences and writes on information systems subjects as well as career management and human resources topics, and he is the creator of the “Executive Career Counsel” column in CIO Magazine. He is a member of the Society for Information Management, previously serving as chairman and president of the New York Metro Chapter. Mark currently serves on the advisory boards of The Information Technology Senior Management Forum, the national organization dedicated to fostering executive talent among African-American IT professionals; and HITEC, the Hispanic Information Technology Executive Council.
Mark holds a master's degree in computer science from Pratt Institute and a bachelor's degree in mathematics and electrical engineering from Union College.
Tony Scott joined Microsoft Corp. in February 2008 as corporate vice president and chief information officer (CIO). Under Scott's leadership, Microsoft IT is responsible for security, infrastructure, messaging, and business applications for all of Microsoft, including support of the product groups, the corporate business groups, and the global sales and marketing organization.
Before joining Microsoft, Tony was the senior vice president and chief information officer for Walt Disney Co., where he led planning, implementation and operations of Disney IT systems and infrastructure across the company. He also held the position of CTO, Information Systems and Services, at General Motors Corp. (GM), where he was responsible for defining the information technology computing and telecommunications strategy, architecture, and standards across all of GM's businesses globally.
Tony has a bachelor of science in information systems management from the University of San Francisco and also holds a Juris Doctorate with a concentration in intellectual property and international law from Santa Clara University.
Esat Sezer was named senior vice president and chief information officer on October 11, 2006, at Coca-Cola Enterprises. He oversees the company's technology and information capabilities and reports to John F. Brock, president and chief executive officer. Esat has more than 25 years of global IT experience. Most recently, he served as corporation vice president and chief information officer for Whirlpool Corporation, a position he held since 2002.
Prior to joining Whirlpool Corporation as vice president, Global Information Services in 2001, he held several positions of increasing responsibility with Colgate-Palmolive Co., including director, Global Information Technology (1999–2001); director, Europe/Africa/Middle East Division (1996–1998); associate director, Global Applications (1996–1997); and director, Information Technology (1994–1996 in Warsaw, Poland; 1991–1994 in Istanbul, Turkey). From 1988 to 1991, he was a senior consultant at Andersen Consulting in London.
Born and raised in Istanbul, he received his bachelor of science degree in electrical engineering from Istanbul Technical University. Esat is currently a board member on the advisory group for the nonprofit organization Computers for Youth and an advisory board member of several technology companies.
David Smoley is the senior vice president and chief information officer of Flextronics International, a $26 billion global manufacturing and services provider operating in more than 30 countries worldwide. Information Week recently ranked Dave as one of the top 50 global CIOs, calling him an IT leader changing the business world.
Prior to his time at Flextronics, Dave served as vice president and chief information officer at Honeywell's Aerospace Electronics Systems. Dave's extensive IT career also includes management positions with General Electric, where he most recently held the position of director and chief information officer for GE Power Controls in Barcelona, Spain.
Dave has a BA in computer science from Clemson University and an MBA from the University of Virginia's Darden School of Business.
Randall (Randy) N. Spratt is executive vice president, chief technology officer, and chief information officer for McKesson Corporation.
As CTO, Randy guides the overall technology direction for the company's health care technology products and provides support and guidance for application development processes company-wide.
As CIO, Randy is responsible for all technology initiatives within the corporation. He has been with McKesson for more than 18 years, most recently as chief process officer for McKesson Provider Technologies (MPT), the company's medical software and services division based in Alpharetta, Georgia. He also managed MPT's Business Development, Information Technology, and Strategic Planning offices, as well as MPT's Technology Services business.
Prior to joining McKesson, Randy held executive positions of increasing responsibility at the start-up Advanced Laboratory Systems (ALS), culminating with the role of chief operations officer. ALS was acquired by HBOC in 1996, which in turn was acquired by McKesson in 1999, and Randy took on responsibility for HBOC's laboratory systems business shortly thereafter. Following the acquisition of HBOC by McKesson in 1999, Randy relocated to Georgia to become part of the reconstructed management team.
Randy earned a bachelor of science degree in biology, with a minor in computer science, from the University of Utah.
As vice president, CTO for Cloud Computing and Growth Initiatives on the IBM Corporate Strategy team, Lauren States is responsible for the technology strategy for IBM's growth initiatives, including cloud computing, Smarter Planet, business analytics, and emerging markets.
In her previous role as vice president of Cloud Com puting for IBM Software Group, Lauren led a global team responsible for establishing market leadership for cloud computing. Her team engaged directly with clients to deliver leading-edge capabilities, incorporating their technology requirements into IBM's strategy, offerings, and plans.
As a senior executive on IBM's Integration and Values Team, Lauren played a leadership role in a company-wide initiative called the Client Value Initiative—a strategic reshaping of IBM's value creation. She was responsible for integrating and transforming IBM's processes for skills development, knowledge management, and career progression for IBM's professional sales force.
In a previous role, Lauren led worldwide Technical Sales and Sales Enablement for IBM Software Group. She was responsible for the 5,000+ technical sales organization and for sales enablement and customer software deployment across IBM's total software business.
Lauren joined IBM in 1978 as a systems engineer in New York City and has held a variety of leadership positions since that time. In 1991, Lauren joined IBM's client/server business initiative, taking responsibility for developing new markets and laying the groundwork for distributed computing. Later, she led IBM's Midwest sales territory, delivering e-business and early Web solutions to all types of clients.
Lauren graduated from the University of Pennsylvania Wharton School with a bachelor of science degree. She has served on the IBM Technical Leadership Team, which is responsible for the development and advancement of IBM's technical workforce. As a role model and mentor to women and minorities around the world, Lauren co-chairs the IBM North America Black Constituency Council. She is chair of the board of visitors for the Northeastern University College of Business and serves on the International House, New York, board of trustees. She also serves on the board of directors for MoJo (www.momsandjobs.com) and is a member of the Executive Leadership Council.
In 2003, Lauren received the Women of Color Technology Conference's Managerial Excellence Award from Career Communications Group, Inc. In 2006, she was recognized as one of the 25 Most Influential Black Women in American Business by The Network Journal. She was also named one of the Top 100 Blacks in Technology in 2006 and 2007 by Career Communications Group, Inc.
Pat Toole is general manager of Maintenance and Technical Support Services—Global Technology Services at IBM. Previously, he served as IBM's chief information officer. As CIO, he was responsible for advancing the company's transformational agenda and aligning information technology investments to the business strategy. Prior to that, Pat was general manager of Intellectual Property at IBM, overseeing the direction of the company's intellectual property portfolio and global patent program.
Pat joined IBM in 1984 and has held a variety of executive and management positions across the company, including vice president of Enterprise On Demand Transformation and Information Technology and general manager of Engineering and Technology Services. Pat holds a bachelor of science in electrical engineering from the University of Notre Dame and a master of business administration from Queens University of Charlotte.
Clifton (Clif) Triplett was named vice president and CIO of Baker in 2008. He joined the company from Motorola, where he served as VP and CIO of the Network and Enterprise Group, and most recently as VP, Global Services. Prior to that, he held a variety of IT leadership roles with General Motors, Allied Signal, and Entergy Services.
He holds a degree in engineering from the U.S. Military Academy and a master's degree in computer information systems from Boston University. Clif is also a member of the executive board for the School of Engineering at Southern Methodist University and is a member of ComputerWorld's Premier 100 IT Leaders for 2010.
Joe Weinman leads a global team focused on strategy and industry solutions for the communications, media, and entertainment verticals in HP's Worldwide Industry Solutions organization. He is a longtime veteran of the industry, having held positions of increasing responsibility at the world's largest telecommunications company, and he is a frequent keynoter, a prolific inventor, and an author/blogger. Joe is a well-known cloud computing evangelist, creating “Cloudonomics” at the intersection of cloud computing, ROI/business value, and economics.