Pepperdine, Arizona State and Insure.com Name New CIOs

The Chicago Tribune has a Q&A with former Daimler Chrysler CIO Karennan Terrell.  Although at times puffy, it’s a quick read with a good lesson at the end. (BTW, Terrell is now CIO of Baxter International.)

Last week, two universities named new CIOs:

Dr. Timothy Chester (at left) will move from Qatar, the oil-rich nation in the Persian Gulf, to Malibu, Calif. to assume his new post Pepperdine University’s information chief. (Random fact: Pepperdine University is Kenneth Starr’s alma mater.) Chester currently serves as CIO of Texas A&M University’s branch in Qatar. At Pepperdine, he will report to VP of Planning, Information and Technology Nancy Magnusson.  Having driven by Pepperdine’s beautiful campus  while on vacation in So-Cal last summer, I can tell you that Chester is one lucky guy.  For more info on Pepperdine’s new CIO, read the press release the university published. 

Arizona State University hired Dr. Adrian Sannier as its deputy SVP and university technology officer.  Sannier most recently worked for Iowa State University in its Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering as an engineering professor.   Also at Iowa State, Sannier co-founded the university’s Human Computer Interaction program and served as associate director for its Virtual Reality Applications Center. Prior to joining Iowa State in 2001, he was VP and general manager of Engineering Animation, a provider of 3D computer graphics software.

Also last week, auto auctioneer Adesa snagged its new VP of e-business from a competitor.  Bob Schoen, who will lead Adesa’s e-Business Center of Excellence and will report to EVP and CIO Ron Beaver, joined the Carmel, Ind.-based company from auto auctioneer Manheim. Schoen worked for Manheim for 11 years, most recently as its director of technology research and development. (I wrote about Manheim’s strategy for using rich media on its web site in the March 1, 2006 issue of CIO and featured Manheim.com in a screencast on Web 2.0 technologies.)

And today, Insure.com announced it had hired a former technology executive from Allstate as its new CIO. Daniel Romito succeeds Eric Bergquist as the Darien, Ill.-based online information and brokerage service’s VP and CIO. Romito, 52, worked for Allstate for 27 years before joining Insure.com. Most recently, he served as senior executive director of Allstate’s Marketing Project Management Office. According to the press release announcing Romito’s hire, Bergquist “resigned to pursue other interests.”