Offering regional and national programs, CIO (and CSO) events bring together some of the most respected names and thought leaders in information technology and security. Presented by CIOs and other senior level executives, these invitation-only programs offer timely topics and strong networking. Learn More »
Webcast: In the Google Apps Cloud: How to Achieve Your Business Objectives
Dec 3rd, '09, 1 - 2 pm US/Eastern (GMT-5)
Join Council member Brent Hoag, Director, Global IT, at JohnsonDiversey, as he discusses the adoption of Google Apps which has helped meet four corporate goals; sustainability, simplification, increased employee productivity and global collaboration.
Webcast: Collaboration Initiatives: Benchmarks & Best Practices
Dec 15th, '09, 4 - 5 pm US/Eastern (GMT-5)
Join Council members Ruth Thorpe, VP & CIO at the U.S. Pharmaceutical Operations of Sanofi-Aventis, and Gary Kuyper, CIO at Bethany Christian Services, as they speak about their collaboration initiatives and experiences in how and why they chose the social networking and collaboration tools they are using and their business goals for collaboration, and facing culture change challenges.
Data Overview: Collaboration Initiatives Field Guide: Benchmarks & Best Practices
This appendix to the Council Field Guide provides an analysis which discusses benchmarks for collaboration IT implementation costs, adoption rates and payoffs. The overview identifies top IT and business goals and satisfaction rates for collaboration initiatives as well as best practices and lessons learned for implementing collaboration IT.
Learn more about the CIO Executive Council »March 05, 2008 — CIO —
The financial services industry has been rocked by the crunch of faltering credit markets, massive layoffs and incidents where risk-management controls failed and traders lost billions for their companies. Not to mention the ominous threats from macroeconomic trends—a looming recession, depressed corporate earnings, all-time-high oil prices and a slumping real estate market.
Such was the daunting backdrop as Tom Sanzone quietly left his CIO role at Credit Suisse in late February and moved just down the street to competitor Merrill Lynch. When he starts in the second half of 2008, Sanzone's new title will be EVP and chief administrative officer, and he will report to Chairman and CEO John Thain. The title has been used before at Merrill Lynch, but never quite like this, says spokeswoman Selena Morris.
The 47-year-old Sanzone will be responsible for global client services and operations; technology applications development and infrastructure; business process and sourcing strategies; information security; and global real estate, purchasing and services. "This is the top technology role at Merrill Lynch," Morris says.
Both Merrill Lynch and Credit Suisse have had their share of internal and external economic angst during the past several months. Merrill Lynch posted an unprecedented fourth-quarter loss of $9.8 billion that led to a loss of $7.8 billion for the fiscal year. (In contrast, Merrill posted $7.5 billion in profits in 2006.)
Credit Suisse fared better than Merrill did last fiscal year, but an unexpected write-down of $2.8 billion that the company reported on Feb. 19 left CEO Brady Dougan to explain what had happened. Dougan stated that an internal review had identified "mismarkings and pricing errors by a small number of traders in certain positions" in Credit Suisse's structured credit trading business.
Fresh on everyone's minds was the French bank Societe Generale's disclosure on Jan. 24 that one of its traders, Jerome Kerviel, had manipulated and evaded the bank's IT controls and had lost more than $7 billion in unauthorized bets. That mug-shot-like photo of Kerviel became the symbol of banks that were under economic siege and lacking robust risk-management controls. (For more on the French bank's nightmare, see "Lessons from Societe Generale's Financial Fiasco.")
There was no such "face" at Credit Suisse, though the Financial Times reported that Kareem Serageldin, Credit Suisse's recently appointed global head of collateralized debt obligations, was among those employees suspended after the internal review.