Winners of the 2008 Ones to Watch Awards

Got leaders?

It’s a question more and more CIOs are asking themselves as retirement, outsourcing and a shrinking pool of IT talent are converging to push leadership development to the top of the to-do list. Cultivating IT leadership is at the core of the 2008 Ones to Watch awards, presented annually by CIO magazine and the CIO Executive Council. Through this award, we recognize the next generation of IT leaders and the CIOs who’ve fostered their talents and helped them advance up the leadership ladder. And with our Standout Award, we highlight those Ones to Watch winners who have excelled in leading innovation, business strategy, project execution, resource management or organizational change.

The winning accomplishments of the 20 men and women who make up this year’s honorees offer proof positive of the benefits of growing your own take-charge leaders. Most have also been lucky enough to have highly supportive bosses who believe in developing IT talent: 83 percent say their CIO is extremely committed to their development, according to our poll of the winners. (How do you measure up to this group of rising stars? Take this quiz and find out.)

Congratulations to all our winners and to the CIOs who nurtured and then nominated this year’s class of leaders. We know you’ll do great things in the future.

The 2008 Ones to Watch Winners

• Name: Sherry Aaholm

  

• Age: 45
• Title: EVP, IT
• Company: FedEx Services
• Quote: IT has the potential to change commerce. Where innovation and technology are driven by the customer, IT powers business strategy.

• Name: Yuri Aguiar
• Age: 39
• Title: CTO
• Company: Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide
• Quote: My mentor taught me that “unreasonable men get results,” to quote George Bernard Shaw. And that only a hand picked and talented team could help a manager reach for the unreasonable and succeed at it.

• Name: Joan Albeck

  

• Age: 42
• Title: Director, IT Infrastructure
• Company: Scottrade
• Quote: IT is a wonderful way to improve the lives of people of all ages. Technology is with us today and will be with our children tomorrow.

• Name: Leonard Burke
• Age: 43
• Title: VP, Hotel Technology Services
• Company: Hilton Hotels Corp.
• Quote: The highlight of my career has been working internationally. This experience has given me a whole new perspective on delivering solutions to a global marketplace.

• Name: Elvis Cernjul
• Age: 37
• Title: Senior Director of Technical Services
• Company: Spiegel Brands Inc.
• Quote: My mentor taught me how to see things objectively, quickly get to the heart of the matter, and move directly to results.

• Name: Ed Earl
• Age: 43
• Title: Global Director, IT Applications
• Company: Littelfuse Inc.
• Quote: To think strategically and execute tactically while never taking my eye off the bottom line—that’s what my mentor taught me.

• Name: Mahmoud El-Assir

  

• Age: 33
• Title: VP, IT Sales & Marketing Systems
• Company: Verizon Telecom
• Quote: IT gives me the opportunity to apply my creativity, energy and skills to helping our business partners meet and exceed their objectives.

• Name: Craig Everson
• Age: 37
• Title: VP, IT Customer Operations & PMO
• Company: CUNA Mutual Group
• Quote: The highlight of my career has been when I’ve delivered a handful of large, extraordinary projects, teamed with great people and delivered business value far exceeding the cost.

• Name: Tomas Gregorio
• Age: 39
• Title: VP, Affiliate CIO IT&S Department
• Company: Newark Beth Israel Medical Center
• Quote: Healthcare technology has the potential to save lives and money in a overburdened and expensive industry.

• Name: Stephen Haag

  

• Age: 37
• Title: Associate VP, Director of Technology
• Company: HNTB Corp.
• Quote: My mentor taught me the importance of taking personal responsibility for making success happen and uncovering what is really important in any situation.

• Name: Patrick Hale

  

• Age: 38
• Title: Deputy Director, Bureau of Infrastructure Services
• Company: State of Michigan
• Quote: IT has become core to transforming every business. Simply put…our innovation drives success.

• Name: John Hill
• Age: 39
• Title: VP, Informatics Services
• Company: Roche
• Quote: I love IT because the pace of change and the breadth of information dictates that you must build great teams in order to drive a high performing culture.

• Name: James Kane
• Age: 44
• Title: IT Program Director, Defense Group
• Company: Northrop Grumman Corp.
• Quote: IT is rapidly becoming the fabric of today’s society, bringing opportunity to home, business and the individual for a better tomorrow.

• Name: Dewitt Latimer
• Age: 45
• Title: Deputy CIO, CTO, Assistant VP/Assistant Provost
• Company: University of Notre Dame
• Quote: There are two things my mentors have taught me. First is that all you really own are ideas and the confidence to act on them. Never run a deficit in either. The second is to recognize the skills and traits you don’t possess, and surround yourself with people who have them.

• Name: Jackie Magno
• Age: NA
• Title: VP, Worldwide Applications
• Company: Business Objects
• Quote: IT can propel the company forward beyond the competition; we are a strategic weapon that takes the business where it cannot go otherwise.

• Name: Jerry Moore
• Age: 32
• Title: Director, Client & Network Services
• Company: Tulsa Technology Center School District #18
• Quote: IT has the potential to change our educational system from the one-room school of yesterday to the virtual classroom of tomorrow.

• Name: Carol Mullins
• Age: 48
• Title: Director, Submission Processing
• Company: Internal Revenue Service
• Quote: My mentor taught me that you will not have a successful, high-performing, customer-focused organization if you don’t take care of your people.

• Name: Jerome Oglesby
• Age: 47
• Title: Director, Infrastructure Technology Services & IT Process Excellence
• Company: Deloitte & Touche USA LLP
• Quote: IT provides me opportunities to develop innovative solutions to business needs that contribute to the bottom line, which is personally rewarding.

• Name: Virginia Suliman
• Age: 35
• Title: VP of Website Product and Technology
• Company: Hilton Hotels Corp.
• Quote: I love IT because it is where we breathe life into ideas that seemed near impossible on paper.

• Name: Charles Wallace
• Age: 40
• Title: IT Director, Chief Technology Architect
• Company: Rohm and Haas Co.
• Quote: I love IT because we have potential without limits, a horizon that remains distant and an impact beyond imagination.