CIOs to Watch in 2008: Who Will You Be Following?

I’ll be keeping my eye on Patricia Morrison, Dick LeFave and Marc West.

Some of the sources I interviewed for my article on job opportunities and challenges for IT leaders in 2008 (titled, 2008: The Year Only Strong IT Leaderes Survive) named the CIOs they’ll be watching in the new year. Some of the names are familiar. Others are new. Among them:

FedEx’s Rob Carter. Anton Hios, vice president of Forrester Leadership Boards, says Carter is always a step ahead and always using IT to innovate.

GM’s Ralph Szygenda. The GM CIO has been in his position such a long time and set such a new precedent for outsourcing in 2006 that Hios wants to see what’s on Szygenda’s docket for 2008.

Harrah’s Tim Stanley. Hio’s says Stanley’s taken on the role of innovator at the casino outfit. (Indeed, his title is SVP of Innovation and Gaming and CIO). Stanley gets to evaluate cool gambling technologies to identify whether they can help the company grow, says Hios.

Boeing’s John Hinshaw. Hios is interested in seeing how the former Verizon Wireless CIO plays in the aircraft manufacturing space.

TNS’s Enzo Micali and 1800FLOWERS’ Steve Bozzo. Hios says Botso Bozzo and Micali are worth watching for their experience integrating organizations their companies acquire. He wants to know what technologies they’re using to capture data across all those acquisitions.

Security Benefit Group’s Dave KeefeKeith. Hios says he want to learn how Keefe Keith turned Topeka, Kansas-based Security Benefit Group’s IT organization around.

Kimberly Clark’s Ramon Baez. “He’s extraordinary,” says Chuck Pappalardo, managing director of Trilogy Search Non+Profit. “He does great work and has a great team.”

Thermo Fisher Scientific’s Ina Kamens. Groomed at Tyco and Marriott, Kamens is a young up-and-comer, according to Pappalardo. He says she’s well-known and regarded and posesses an extraordinarly good” management style.

I’ll keep my eye on those CIOs, and I’ll follow this lady and these gentlemen:

• Patricia Morrison, EVP and CIO of Motorola
• Marc West, Group President, Commercial Markets, H&R Block (he was previously CIO)
• Dick LeFave, CIO of Sprint Nextel

I’m looking out for Morrison, West and LeFave because the CEOs at their companies have all turned over and because their companies are either struggling to retain marketshare (Motorola and Sprint Nextel) or with the collapse of the housing market (H&R Block). I wonder how the CEO turnover will impact their jobs, if at all. Will they want to stay with their employers, or will they find new opportunities. LeFave has worked for Sprint Nextel since February 1999. West has been with H&R Block since 2001. Morrison, who joined Motorola in 2005, was just elected to vendor SPSS’s board of directors.

Who will you be watching and why?