Alien Technology Scores New CIO

Alien Technology scored when it convinced Bob L. Martin, the former CIO of Wal-Mart and CEO of the retailer’s international division, to join its board of directors.  The Morgan Hill, Calif.-based manufacturer of RFID products announced its appointment of Martin to its board yesterday.  Alien makes RFID products used by many of Wal-Mart’s suppliers.  

Until his retirement in 1999, Martin was president and CEO of Wal-Mart International. Prior to that, he was executive vice president and CIO of Wal-Mart Stores. From 1985 until his retirement, he was a member of Wal-Mart’s executive committee. 

Today, Martin also serves on the boards of directors of Gap, Sabre Holdings, Furniture Brands International, Edgewater Technology, Conn’s, and the following nonprofit groups: Students in Free Enterprise, Santa Clara University School of Retailing and the Rafiki Foundation. 

In other boardroom news, Frank Fanzilli, the former CIO of Credit Suisse First Boston, was elected to Sona Mobile’s board of directors.  Fanzilli is helping the NYC-based wireless applications provider build and manage relationships with clients in Sona Mobile’s core market, the financial services industry.  Click here for the full news release.

Tom Sanzone is following in Fanzilli’s footsteps.  On August 29, he joins Credit Suisse Group as its CIO and as a member of the executive board of its banking business.  He comes to the company from Citigroup where he most recently served as CIO and head of operations for Citigroup’s global corporate investment bank.  He was also responsible for real estate and general services at Citigroup.  His board appointment is effective January 1, 2006 and he is based in Zurich, Switzerland.

Mark Robinson keeps on truckin’ at SCS Transportation, a supply chain and trucking company based in Kansas City.  He was promoted from vice president of information technology at one of SCS’s subsidiaries, Saia, to VP of IT and CIO at SCS.  He had held the VP title at Saia since 1997.  Robinson graduated from Central Missouri State University in 1984 with a bachelor of science in mathematics and computer science.

Robert Land’s career path has led him to I-trax, a provider of integrated health and productivity management software, as its new CIO.  He comes to the Chadds Ford, Pa.-based company from Outercurve Technologies where he was responsible for the global development of the company’s wireless application services. Previously, Land worked for InteliHealth, the joint venture between Aetna and the Harvard Medical School, where he focused on developing new Internet-based services that tied into Aetna’s core business and drove new revenue opportunities for Aetna’s corporate health sales force. Prior to InteliHealth, Land formed Music 123, an online marketer of musical instruments.

Government technology solutions aggregator GTSI

promoted Bob Mitchell to CIO and vice president of information advantage (explanation of that unusual title to come.)  He reports to Tom Mutryn, GTSI’s senior vice president and chief financial officer.  Mitchell joined GTSI in 2002 as senior director of strategic business analysis. Prior to GTSI, Mitchell founded his own consulting firm and held several executive positions including chief operating officer, chief financial officer and vice president of operations and marketing at a software startup in Austin, Texas.

Dave Truzinski jumped from Cingular to Leap Wireless International where he serves as the wireless communications services provider’s vice president and CIO.  Truzinski spent close to four years with Cingular/AT&T Wireless before joining the San Diego-based company.  He served as Cingular’s CIO and vice president of international IT and as AT&T’s director of international IT. Truzinski led the IT organization that was responsible for the launch of AT&T Wireless’ operations in the Caribbean.