CIO announcements from Best Buy, Belo and IdleAire Technologies

Last Friday, Best Buy announced that it had hired Neville Roberts into a new position with the company. Roberts joined as CIO of Best Buy International. He reports to Robert Willett, CEO of the international business unit and CIO of the company. The international CIO will head up the creation of a suite of standardized information systems and processes that Best Buy outlets outside of the US can use. He’ll also be focused on the development of an e-commerce platform that will support the company’s growth in Canada, Mexico, China, Europe and Turkey. Roberts comes to Best Buy from Accenture. Best Buy outsourced its IT operations to Accenture in 2004. Roberts most recently served as Accenture’s senior partner in its global retail practice. He worked with Wal-Mart International, WHSmith, Argos and Tesco during the course of his 18-year tenure with Accenture.

Charles Elia was promoted to vice president of information systems at The PMA Insurance Group (not to be confused with the PMI Group). He most recently served as assistant vice president of information systems. In his new role, Elia is responsible for the Blue Bell, Penn.-based company’s data center operations and staff, system programmers, network administrators, database administrators and help desk and support personnel. He reports to CIO Jim Klotz. Elia joined The PMA Insurance Group in 1994 after a 22 years with Fidelity Mutual Life Insurance Company. The LaSalle University graduate holds a Bachelor of Science degeree in business administration.

Matthew Bieri was named CIO of A. H. Belo Corp., the soon to be publicly traded newspaper company spun out of Belo Corp. Bieri reports to Donald “Skip” Cass, EVP of A. H. Belo. He joins from EDS, where he most recently served as vice president of global delivery for EDS’s human resources outsourcing organization. Bieri became an employee of EDS when it acquired his previous employer, The Feld Group, in 2004. Previously, he worked for Raytheon. Bieri began his career with CSC in 1981 as a systems engineer and programmer responsible for developing software for the Space Shuttle. You could say that Bieri’s career has really taken off since then. Nyuk, nyuk.

Tom Badgett, CIO, secretary and co-founder of IdleAire Technologies, announced his retirement on Jan. 29. According to the press release, Badgett is stepping down for personal reasons and not due to any disagreements with the company’s executive management or board of directors. Badgett’s responsibilities are being absorbed by other areas of the company.