CIO Changes at J&J, Burger King and Western Union

If anyone has proven that good IT leadership can transcend industry background, it’s Stuart McGuigan. Stuart has been CIO at Medco, Liberty Mutual, CVS Caremark, and has just become CIO of Johnson & Johnson. It is interesting that in a world where IT is becoming more and more integrated with the business — and more often than not, CEO’s prefer industry background — that the truly great CIOs can make it work regardless of business model.

And in more CIO shake-up news, Kelly Maddern has been hired as CIO at Burger King, the fast food chain. Maddern previously was a vice president for solutions delivery at Abercrombie & Fitch, the clothing retailer. Neither Burger King or Abercrombie & Fitch released details related to this move, which apparently took place in February.

The City of New York has picked Rahul N. Merchant as its new chief information and innovation officer, and commissioner of the Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications. The newly expanded position will report directly to Mayor Michael Bloomberg, the mayor’s office announced. Merchant has more than 25 years of experience as an IT executive, having worked most recently managing IT investments for a private equity firm. Merchant also was CTO of Merrill Lynch, and helped that company rebuild its technology infrastructure after 9/11. In addition, he worked as chief information and operations officer for Fannie Mae for three years, where he streamlined the company’s infrastructure and operations.

Daniel Sheehan has left his CIO role at Dunkin’ Brands Inc. for the COO position at Modell’s Sporting Goods. With over 27 years of management and information technology experience, Sheehan is responsible for store operations, distribution, loss prevention, e-commerce, information technology, visual merchandising and human resources at Modell’s. For six years at Dunkin’ Brands, he handled the brand’s retail technology strategy and execution, enterprise information systems, technical operations and business process integration.

Western Union has tapped David Thompson to be the company’s next CIO. Most recently, Thompson served as EVP & CIO at Symantec, where he also had responsibility for the global services organization. Prior to Symantec, he served as EVP & CIO at Oracle. It is speculated that Western Union, which acquired Travelex Global Business Payments last year for $976 million, was attracted to Thompson’s merger integration experience. While at Oracle, he oversaw M&A integrations with Vantive and JDEdwards. Thompson replaces John R. Dick, who has retired.

CIT Group Inc., a leading provider of financing to small businesses and middle market companies, announced the appointment of Stacey Goodman as EVP and CIO. Prior to CIT, Goodman served as Managing Director of Global Technology & Operations at Bank of America. Before this she was Managing Director, Information Technology at UBS. She will report to Nelson J. Chai, President.

Financial technology provider Fiserv, Inc. has named Cliff Skelton as SVP and CIO.  Skelton succeeds Maryann Goebel who will continue as a company advisor until her retirement on July 1, 2012. Skelton comes from Ally Financial Corporation where he worked as global chief technology and operations officer since 2007. Before Ally, Skelton held senior leadership roles at Bank of America.

Douglas Debrecht has been appointed to the position of Vice President, Information Technology for B/E Aerospace, effective April 23, 2012. Debrecht will have the responsibility for providing overall management and leadership for the Information Technology function. He will work as a strategic business partner with the senior management team in leading a number of key IT initiatives, including ERP program delivery. Most recently, Debrecht served as the VP of Information Technology and CIO at Chemtura Corporation, and prior to that as VP and CIO, Raytheon International and Business Development. He will report to Werner Lieberherr, President & Chief Operating Officer and will be based in Winston-Salem, NC.

Jo Abernathy has been promoted to CIO at Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina, replacing Alan Hughes, who is now its COO. Abernathy has served in the information technology department at BCBS of NC for several years in a progression of roles including, most recently, Vice President, Application Development.

EnerNOC, Inc., a provider of energy management applications for utilities and industrial customers, announced the appointment of Gerry Wilson to the position of CIO. In this role, Wilson will drive EnerNOC’s global IT strategy and build out an IT infrastructure that supports its 24/7/365 energy management platform. Most recently, Wilson served as Vice President and CIO at Unica Corporation (now part of IBM), a leading provider of Enterprise Marketing Management solutions.

Thanks for sending me all of the good news. Keep it coming!