From the Dark Depths of Winter Spring Major new CIO Appointments

Here in the Northeast, where in some areas, we are under more than 72 inches of snow, it is hard to imagine concepts like “growth” and “change.”  The slowdowns caused by these storms have not trickled over into IT leadership hires however, as we’ve seen more than a flurry of new CIO appointments over the last month.

VMware

Last week, President Obama named Tony Scott as the next U.S. CIO. Tony is a 35-year industry veteran, and most recently hails from software firm VMware. Prior to that, he was the CIO at Microsoft and The Walt Disney Company. He will be taking over for Lisa Schlosser at The White House, who was the acting federal CIO. In addition, Tony will also serve as administrator of the Office of Electronic Government in the Office of Management and Budget (OMB).

The auto industry is as eager to use technology to gain a competitive edge as anyone else, and General Motors is no exception to that. The Detroit automaker has promoted Michael Wolfe to CIO and executive director of the automaker’s Global Connected Customer Experience group, which includes the company’s OnStar and call centers divisions. Michael will report in to Randy Mott, GM’s global CIO.

Tesco CIO Mike McNamara is leaving the UK supermarket chain and moving to the U.S. to become CIO at retail giant Target. Mike replaces retiring Bob DeRhodes as CIO, who was brought in to help overhaul the company’s IT security after its massive data breach in late 2013. As technology will be critical to the future success of Target, Mike is seen as the go-to leader who can make this happen, according to Target chairman and CEO, Brian Cornell.

Mitchell Klaif has been appointed executive vice president and chief information officer with Time Warner, coming over from Time Inc., where he was CIO for the company’s magazine arm. The new role will encompass management of the corporate information technology group as well as lead execution the firm’s enterprise information technology.

Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co. has named Sherry Neubert as its new vice president and chief information officer. Sherry, who starts on April 1 and replaces the retiring James McKinnon, will be the third female CIO at Goodyear. She joined the company in 2002 and previously worked in management and IT consulting and management consulting. Sherry will report to Laura Thompson, executive vice president and CFO.

Car rental giant Hertz hired Tyler Best as its new Executive Vice President and Chief Information Officer where he will oversee the company’s global IT functions. Prior to joining Hertz, he was the CIO at YP and previously held senior IT roles with Alamo, National, and Budget Rent-a-Car. Tyler’s reputation for delivering consistent bottom line improvement comes at a critical time as Hertz plans to cut $100 million in costs this year.

Warren Kudman, formerly CIO of Sealed Air Corp., is the new CIO for Turner Construction. He replaces Micky Doner at Turner, who is now reporting to him from a new role in the company’s technology services department. Warren reports to Turner CFO Karen Gould.

Windstream Holdings named Lewis Langston as its new chief information officer. Previously, Lewis was the CIO for Allied Wireless Communications Corp. Since going public in 2006, Windstream has made heavy investments in communications technology, and welcomes Lewis’ breadth of experience.

Georgette Kiser has been named partner, managing director and CIO at The Carlyle Group LP, where she will lead the firm’s global information technology unit. She is the first CIO for the asset management firm, and joins Carlyle from T. Rowe Price, where she was head of enterprise solutions.

Tibor Menyhert has joined STV as vice president and chief information officer. He has extensive expertise in IT governance, planning, and global information technology as well as more than 21 years of IT leadership experience. Tibor reports to Milo Riverso, president and chief executive officer at STV.

If you have CIO job news to share, please get in touch with me! Till next time-

Martha