Home Depot, Dana Holding Corp. to Lose CIOs

Two high-profile companies are about to lose their CIOs.

Bruce Carver is departing automotive supplier Dana Holding Corp. to become CIO of engine-maker Cummins Inc. May 2. And Bob DeRodes plans to quit Home Depot at the end of the year, according to a company announcement.

Both Carver and DeRodes leave behind companies facing uncertainty.

In January, Dana, a $9 billion auto supplier, emerged from 22 months of bankruptcy protection. Hired as Dana’s first global CIOin 2004, Carver was charged with streamlining information technology operations as Dana recovered from a hostile take-over attempt by rival ArvinMeritor and the death of Dana’s then-CEO, a 37-year company veteran. Carver was a divisional CIO at PepsiCo before joining Dana.

Within 100 days of starting the job, he had rearranged his 709-member staff and appointed managers to several key positions, such as director of IT operations and director of human resources for IT.

More recently, in the past three years, Dana has lost $2.9 billion and cut its workforce from 44,000 to 35,000. Carver’s appointees have since left Dana, a company spokesman confirmed.

Steven Davis, currently IT director of Dana’s heavy vehicle systems group, which makes axles and drive shafts, will become acting CIO as the company looks for a permanent IT leader, the spokesman said.

At Home Depot, meanwhile, DeRodes announced his impending departure as the company works to modify and install a new SAP ERP suite critical to core retail operations. The software is due to go live in Canada this year; it’s not yet running in the U.S. The hardware and garden retailer recently laid off 500 employees, including an unspecified number of technology staff, a spokesman acknowledged.

The statement from Home Depot didn’t say where DeRodes was going; separately, the company spokesman said he had no information about that.

Last August, DeRodes’ former boss, Bob Nardelli, left as CEO of Home Depot to be CEO of Chrysler. Nardelli hired DeRodes in 2002, from Delta Air Lines.

DeRodes will help the company choose his successor, the spokesman said, adding that Home Depot will hire an executive search firm. It is unknown whether the new CIO will take home as much as his predecessor: DeRodes is among the highest compensated CIOs in the U.S.; he was paid $4.3 million for 2007 and $5.2 million in 2006.

DeRodes beat the average CIO tenure, which, according to our 2008 State of the CIO survey, is four years, five months. Carver fell short by 10 months.