CIO Announcements from DaimlerChrysler, BearingPoint, Harsco and more

Plus: Former E-Trade CTO Turns Up on Board of Network Security Company

DaimlerChrysler today announced that it had appointed Jan Bertsch vice president of information technology and CIO of its Chrysler Group and Mercedes Benz NAFTA sales.  Bertsch, 49, reports to DaimlerChrysler’s SVP and CIO, Sue Unger.  Bertsch  most recently served as Chrysler Group’s vice president of sales and marketing finance.

Last Friday, I received two separate updates on the whereabouts of Josh Levine (pictured at left), the ex-CTO of E-Trade, whom I wrote about in January. A Movers and Shakers reader told me that Levine is now at the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX), reportedly as its chief IT architect, where he’s working with NYMEX’s CIO Samuel Gaer on the expansion of its electronic trading system.  In another e-mail, a PR person for Securify sent me a press release saying that the network security company had appointed Levine to its board of directors.  Oddly, the release does not mention that Levine now works for NYMEX, so I’m checking to find out whether or not Levine is still there.  

***Update on Josh Levine 5/3/05: He’s no longer at the NYMEX.

Eric Goldfarb, whom I wrote about in my December 1, 2004 story, How To Be a Mind Reader, told me yesterday that he joined management consultancy BearingPoint as its EVP and CIO. He held the same title at his last company, auditing firm PRG Schultz International. Prior to PRG, Goldfarb was CIO at publisher Macmillan and at Elder Beerman Stores Corporation.  Goldfarb is also quoted in an article on how to survive your first year on the job as CIO.

Yesterday, Gemstar-TV Guide International announced two IT executive appointments.  The Los Angeles-based company named John Moakley vice president of technology program management within its corporate product development group. It also promoted Todd Dietz into Moakley’s previous role; Dietz is now vice president of IT and fulfillment in the TV Guide publishing group. Moakley had held that role since 2003. In his new role, Moakley will be responsible for defining and overseeing the enhancement of TV Guide’s content infrastructure.  Moakley now reports to Michael Starkenburg, Gemstar-TV Guide’s SVP of technology. Dietz meanwhile will manage all aspects of TV Guide’s fulfillment operation and will assume responsibility for day-to-day operations for the information technology development group, which supports all aspects of the TV Guide publishing group.  Dietz will manage a combined staff of more than 100 including developers, database administrators, projects managers, and call center and fulfillment operations personnel based in Radnor, Penn. Dietz reports to Michael Clayton, executive vice president and general manager of TV Guide publishing group. Notably, both Moakley and Dietz earned Bachelor of Science degrees from Rutgers University’s College of Engineering and MBA degrees from Rutgers Graduate School of Management.

Scott Gerson was promoted from vice president of IT to vice president and CIO of industrial products and services provider Harsco Corp.  Gerson has been with the $2.8 billion company since early ’05. Previously, he worked for Kulicke & Soffa Industries, Compaq Computers and TRW in IT management positions.