JetBlue’s CIO Gets a New Boss

Plus: CIO announcements from Credit Suisse, Merrill Lynch, Bank of America, Frontier Airlines and more.

Joseph Eng displaced Charles “Duffy” Mees as JetBlue‘s top IT executive. The low-cost airline announced on March 4 that it had hired Eng as its executive vice president of systems and technology. Mees, who joined JetBlue in August 2006 as its vice president and CTO, was named CIO three months later in November, after then-CIO Todd Thompson left for Starwood Hotels. Mees now reports to Eng. Eng represents IT on the executive team and reports to Russ Chew, JetBlue’s president and COO. Mees used to report to JetBlue’s founder and chairman, David Neeleman, when he was CEO. Mees spoke with CIO in 2007 about the lessons the company learned after ice storms in February of that year crippled the airline.  

Eng most recently served as president and CEO of IT consultancy Spectrum Systems. Previously, he was CIO of SWIFT, a provider of messaging services to the financial services industry. While Eng was at SWIFT, the company was named to the CIO 100 in 2005. CIO profiled Eng in this story on managing expectations.

Credit Suisse appointed Karl Landert to succeed Tom Sanzone as its CIO. Sanzone left Credit Suisse at the end of February and will be joining Merrill Lynch as its EVP and chief administrative officer in the second half of 2008, according to the press release Merrill Lynch issued. Landert most recently served as Credit Suisse’s head of IT private banking. He now reports to CEO Brady Dougan. For more on Sanzone’s move to Merrill Lynch, read my colleague Tom Wailgum’s story Credit Suisse CIO Jumps Ship to Merrill Lynch Amid Industry Turmoil. For information on Sanzone’s work at Credit Suisse, see Credit Suisse’s Balancing Act.

SVB Financial Group promoted David Webb, CIO of Silicon Valley Bank, to COO on March 3. Webb had been serving as Silicon Valley Bank’s CIO since he joined in 2004. He succeeds Greg Becker in the COO role; Becker was named president. Previously, Webb was a vice president in Goldman Sachs‘ investment banking division, CIO of Finance One at Bank One Corp. and CTO for GE Capital‘s auto financing business.

Dean Athanasia was named president of Bank of America’s Premier Banking & Investments unit, which is part of the company’s Global Wealth & Investment Management division, on March 11. Athanasia most recently served as Premier Banking & Investment’s northeast division executive. He previously was in charge of strategic planning, business development, marketing, sales, regulatory administration and investment and service centers. He also previously served as the Global Wealth & Investment Management division’s CIO.

Frontier Airlines promoted its Vice President and CIO Gerry Coady to SVP and CIO on March 7. Coady’s promotion comes 10 months after he joined the company in May 2007.

 Las Vegas Gaming Inc. hired an IT architect from Harrah’s as its new CIO and CTO. Tim Britt most recently served as “uber-architect” on Harrah’s innovation, R&D and information technology strategy team. He led the technical teams responsible for such new products as Total Touch, Microsoft Surface

and bCode. Britt began his career at GE, where he spun off a company, Paradigm Systems, which he created to bring new technologies into GE business units. He later shifted Paradigm Systems’ focus to the gaming industry. Three years later Konami Gaming purchased Paradigm Gaming Systems. Britt served as SVP of Konami’s systems division after it acquired his company.

Mike d’Almada-Remedios left his post as CIO of eBay and Shopping.com to parlay his web portal design and operations expertise at online real estate company Move. The new CTO is based in Move’s office in Campbell, Calif. At eBay, d’Almada-Remedios was a member of the technology board for the online auctioneer, PayPal and Skype. At Shopping.com, he led cross-functional workgroups responsible for defining and building next-generation search, catalog, classification and product platforms; increasing software engineering productivity; and site stability and scalability. Prior to eBay, d’Almada-Remedios was CIO of Travelocity and lastminute.com.

Precyse Solutions promoted Ken Lacy to SVP and CIO on March 10. Lacy had been serving as corporate vice president and CIO since he joined the health information management solutions provider in 2000. Lacy’s promotion recognizes the work he did leading the implementation of Precyse Solutions’ flagship platform, PrecyseNet. In his new role, he takes on responsibility for creating a product management function for the company. Prior to Precyse Solutions, Lacy worked for CareCentric Solutions, SpectraLogic and HBO & Company. He holds an undergraduate degree in electrical engineering from Georgia Tech and a Master’s degree in business and health care administration from Georgia State University.

Saro Jahani was named CIO of National Stock Exchange on March 1, just four months after he joined the company on November 1, 2007 as its SVP of IT. The new, elevated title reflects the work Jahani did to prioritize the exchange’s technology needs, according to this press release. Prior to National Stock Exchange, Jahani worked for market data provider Townsend Analytics as its global head of infrastructure, operations and facilities. He also previously served as SunGard‘s EVP of IT operations and as CIO of SunGard in Sweden. Before SunGard, Jahani held IT positions with Cap Gemeni, Swedish Telecom and Crosfield Electronics.  

American CareSource Holdings filled its newly created CIO post on March 10 with Rost Ginevich. Ginevich, 44, reports to David Boone, CEO Of the Dallas, Texas-based company. Ginevich most recently worked for consultancy West Monroe Partners doing business develoment and working on client engagements. Prior to that, he was CIO of Kitty Hawk. He also previously worked for IBM Business Consulting Services. Ginevich earned his MBA and bachelor’s degrees from Oklahoma State University.

BridgeHealth International hired Stephen Hultquist as its CIO. BridgeHealth helps individuals find affordable healthcare procedures outside the United States. Hultquist joined the Denver, Colo.-based medical services provider from Roving Planet, where he served as vice president of operations. Previously, he worked for Accumedia as its CTO and vice president of engineering and operations. His twenty years of experience in IT also includes stints as CTO of VP of technology for Leopard Communications; vice president of network services for Service Metrics and CTO and vice president of engineering for High Speed Access Corp. For more information on Hultquist’s background, see the press release announcing his hire.

Manoj Kulkarni is replacing Mark Griesbaum as CIO of Career Education Corp. Griesbaum will be leaving the company “to pursue other opportunities” once he helps Kulkarni transition to his

new role, according to the press release announcing Kulkarni’s hire. Kulkarni joined the education provider on March 3. Since 1993, he had worked for Toys R Us as its vice president of IT.

Protective Life Corp. hired David Gutierrez as its SVP and CIO. He reports to Carolyn Johnson, the insurance company’s EVP and COO. Gutierrez most recently worked for ING Insurance Americas as a regional CIO. Previously, he was CIO of ING Latin America.

Thomas Bakewell joined Riverbed Technology as its CIO on March 6. No stranger to technology companies, he’s held senior IT leadership positions with Coherent and Brocade Communications. He’s also worked for Sun, Cobalt Networks and California Microwave.

Burns & Wilcox hired Steve Treppa as its IT director. Treppa is responsible for setting the insurance wholesaler’s IT strategy. He most recently worked for Rader, Fishman and Grauer PLLC as the law firm’s director of IT. Prior to joining Rader, Fishman and Grauer, Treppa was the network engineer/legal technology manager at the law firm Dykema Gossett PLLC. He earned his master’s degree in business administration from Oakland University in Rochester Hills, Mich., and earned his bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Wayne State University in Detroit.