New CIOs at Qantas and Borders

Aussie Airline Qantas hired a new CIO who starts on September 17, 2007. Jamila Gordon was selected for her experience managing complex outsourcing arrangements, and lord knows, Qantas has many of those. (Previous CIO Fiona Balfour was a big proponent of outsourcing, having engineered deals with IBM and Amadeus.) The press release announcing Grodon’s appointment at the company stated that she will work alongside Qantas’s current CIO, John Willett, until the end of October 2007, when Willet retires. Gordon most recently worked in the financial services industry in Europe. Previously she worked for IBM. She was born in Mogadishu, Somalia and emigrated to Australia in 1989. She holds an Associate Diploma in accounting from Bendigo TAFE and a Bachelor of Business degree in information technology from La Trobe University.

Last month I noted that Susan Harwood (at left) would be taking over Cedric Vanzura‘s IT responsibilities at Borders in September. The bookseller announced in July that it was eliminating Vanzura’s position as chief strategy officer and EVP of emerging business and technology and that it had hired Harwood to oversee IT as CIO. Harwood joined Borders earlier than was first announced, having begun her new job on Monday, August 20. Harwood most recently served as VP of IT at Books-A-Million, a position she had held since 2001. Prior to Books-A-Million, she worked for Crown Books for six years. She started with the publisher as an independent consultant in 1995, then became director of systems planning, then director of corporate systems, and finally in 1998 vice president of IT and CIO. More information about Harwood is available in the press release announcing her hire on Broders’ corporate web site.