Halamka appointed to board of Epocrates; Wright named to Looksmart board of directors

Robert Whittington recently joined Wendy’s International as senior vice president and CIO. He succeeds John Deane in the CIO role; Deane was promoted in May 2005 from EVP and CIO to EVP of Wendy’s North American Operations (more on Deane below.)  Whittington comes to the Dublin, Ohio-based company from Sun Microsystems where his title was retail vertical technology officer. Prior to Sun, he worked for EDS as its vice president of business process innovation consulting. He also previously worked for Ernst & Young/Cap Gemini, consulting with such companies as The Fleming Companies, McDonald’s, Albertsons, Walgreens, Sears, Dayton Hudson, and the United Kingdom government. Whittington holds a bachelor of arts degree from Wheaton College and an MBA from the University of Chicago.

During his tenure at Wendy’s, Deane (pictured at left) made the company’s information technology group more strategic and mobile, and oversaw key initiatives such as e-pay, store budgeting and store automation. He also championed change-management processes throughout the company to help meet changing consumer needs. Prior to Wendy’s Deane held senior management positions at MedPartners (now CareMark Rx), Whirlpool, Price Waterhouse, and he also founded his own technology services company, Clipper Management. Deane earned a bachelor of science degree in business from the Universidad Catolica Argentina in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and an MBA from Marquette University.  Deane is also featured in this cover story I wrote about business intelligence in the restaurant industry.

Harvard Medical School’s CIO John D. Halamka (pictured at left)  was elected to the board of directors of Epocrates, a provider of clinical software based in San Mateo, Calif.  In addition to currently serving as Harvard Medical School’s CIO, Halamka is currently associate dean for educational technology at Harvard Medical School; CIO of the Harvard Clinical Research Institute; CIO at CareGroup Health System; and chairman of the New England Health Electronic Data Interchange Network. In addition, Halamka is a practicing emergency physician, an alum of the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology, an avid ice and rock climber, and perhaps most importantly, a dad.

Timothy J. Wright (pictured at right, with the hip eyewear) was appointed to the board of directors of online search firm LookSmart.  Wright currently serves as chief executive of Geac’s Asia-Pacific, Europe and Middle East operations and as its CTO.  He has held those positions since 2004.  He joined the enterprise software provider in 2003 as its senior vice president, CTO and CIO.  Prior to Geac, Wright worked for internet service provider Terra Lycos as senior vice president, CTO and CIO.  Previously, he worked for The Learning Co. for seven years, until it was acquired by Mattel in 1999.  Wright earned a bachelor of science degree in computer science from City University in London.

Gerald Gluscic was promoted from vice president and CIO of copper producer Phelps Dodge to vice president of global supply chain management and information services.  Gluscic was recognized for improving business processes, implementing a data warehousing and standardizing IT.  He joined the company in 2001 as VP and CIO.  In his new role, he will be responsible for all aspects of global supply chain management, financial shared services and IT.  He will continue to report to Phelps Dodge’s EVP and CFO, Ramiro Peru.  He holds a bachelor of science degree in marketing from Indiana State University.

Donald Haile, the former CIO of Fidelity Investments, took a job with Fidelity Ventures as a venture partner.  Haile will provide the perspective of a CIO to companies in Fidelity Ventures’ portfolio and help identify new investment opportunities.  As Fidelity Investments’ CIO, he managed a $2 billion average annual technology budget and led the adoption of numerous emerging technologies including a wireless LAN Solution and a business service management platform designed to help consolidate and correlate network and systems traffic load information across the enterprise.  He also helped organized CIO roundtable discussions.  He served as Fidelity Investments’ CIO for seven years. 

C&D Technologies, a producer and marketer of electrical power storage and conversion systems, hired Michael C. Crowley as vice president and CIO.  Most recently, Crowley led his own IT management consulting company.  Previously, he worked for Avaya, Campbell Soup and Rich Products as vice president and CIO. Crowley graduated from Penn State University with a bachelor of science degree in operations management and received his MBA from the University of Pittsburgh.

William J. McGarry (pictured at right) was named vice president of information technology and CIO of St. Jude Medical, a manufacturer of medical devices based in St. Paul, Minn.  He comes to the company from Medtronic, where since 2001 he served as vice president of enterprise applications.  Prior to Medtronic, McGarry held executive IT positions at General Electric, Owens Corning, Honeywell and Pillsbury.

Bayer Pharmaceuticals’ Head of Informatics Joseph A. Cerro (pictured at left) joins Nextel CIO Dick LeFave and Pepsico CIO Tom Trainer as a recipient of Global Capital Associates’ Albert Einstein Award.  Cerro was recognized for his work in the field of life science informatics and IT.  As a member of Bayer Pharmaceuticals’ IT governance committee, Cerro leads the company’s research IT strategy.  Since 1997, he has contributed to the development of Bayer’s technology platform.  Before joining Bayer, Cerro was an independent technology consultant.  He serves on the executive board of the Yale Science & Engineering Association and is one of the founding members of the Boston Technology Leadership Council.  He graduated from Yale University with a bachelor of science degree in molecular biophysics and biochemistry, and he holds two masters degrees from Columbia University.