New CIOs at Verizon Wireless and Boeing

Ajay Waghray is flying high at Verizon Wireless. The 2006 Ones to Watch honoree is moving into the company’s CIO post on July 1, 2007. He currently serves as CIO of Verizon Wireless’ 15-state Midwest region, a position to which he was appointed last summer. He’s credited with driving the consolidation and simplification of Verizon Wireless’s billing and customer service systems. Waghray has worked for Verizon Wireless’s IT organization since the company launched in 2000. At that time, he was Bell Atlantic’s vice president of IT. (Bell Atlantic was the precursor to Verizon. ) Waghray earned his MBA from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business. He also holds a master’s degree in computer science from West Virginia University. He graduated from the Birla Institute of Technology and Science in Pilani, India with a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering.

Waghray succeeds John Hinshaw in the CIO post at Verizon Wireless. Hinshaw, 36, left the Basking Ridge, N.J.-based company to join Boeing as its CIO and vice president in charge of IT. Hinshaw begins his new job on June 29 and reports to John Tracy, Boeing’s senior vice president of engineering, operations and technology. Hinshaw had worked for Verizon since 1993, back when it was Bell Atlantic. During his tenure with the telecom company, he held a number of high-level IT management positions, including vice president of IT and CIO of Verizon Wireless’s southern region. Prior to Verizon/Bell Atlantic, Hinshaw worked for Accenture, the U.S. Department of Commerce and the U.S. Department of Defense. He has a bachelor’s degree in computer information systems from James Madison University in Virginia.

At Boeing, Hinshaw replaces Scott Griffin, who is retiring on July 1, 2007. Griffin, 52, joined Boeing in 1979 and became CIO 20 years later. He plans to pursue a master’s degree in non-profit leadership at Seattle University this summer.