Can Finance Leaders Make Good CIOs?

A. Schulman, a $2B manufacturer in Akron, OH has just appointment Donald “Mickey” McMillan as CIO.  What is particularly interesting about this move is that McMillan’s background is in finance.  He has been with A. Schulman for 17 years, and has held positions including Corporate Controller, Chief Accounting Officer and, most recently, Interim Finance Director, Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA). Prior to joining A. Schulman, he spent 13 years in public accounting.  The benefit to having a finance director run IT is that he can keep IT costs down and be particularly good at regulatory compliance.  The downside, however, may be that a finance director does not have the experience on the innovation side of IT.   The marriage between IT and finance has always been a rocky one. It will be interesting to see if appointing finance leaders as CIO is a trend.

Aflac, Inc. hired Julia K. Davis to serve as SVP and CIO, reporting to Teresa L. White, EVP and COO. Davis brings more than 28 years of IT leadership experience, most recently serving as CIO at American Safety Insurance (ASI). Prior to her tenure at ASI, Davis served as CIO of the Equipment Finance Division for GE Capital Healthcare Financial Services and GE Capital Business Productivity Solutions.

Land O’Lakes, Inc. named Mike Macrie as its new VP and CIO. He replaces Barry Libenson who joined Safeway last month. Macrie joined Land O’Lakes in 2010 as VP and Senior Director of Ag Services IT and previously served various roles at Ingersoll Rand, AlliedSigna, G5 Technologies and Multi-Media Solutions.

NASA appointed Larry N. Sweet as CIO, effective June 30. Sweet has been with the agency since 1987 and most recently served as Johnson Space Center’s CIO and Information Resources Director.  He replaces Linda Cureton, who retired earlier this year.

Donna Justiss joined Advance Auto Parts, Inc. as its new CIO and SVP. Justiss has been with the company since 2005 in various IT executive roles, including Interim CIO. Prior to joining Advance Auto Parts, Justiss was VP of Application Development at Eckerd Corp. Before Eckerd, she spent 19 years at J.C. Penney Co., where she held various IT and accounting positions.

Unum Group announced Kate Miller as its new SVP and CIO. Miller will succeed Kathy Owen and report to Chris Jerome, EVP of Global Services, on July 15. Previously, Miller was the Associate CIO at the IRS and VP at CGI-AMS.

CNO Financial Group, Inc. announced Bradley Bodell as SVP and CIO, reporting to Bruce Baude, EVP, Chief Operations and Technology Officer, effective July 15. Previously, Bodell was VP, Global Technology & Operations, for MetLife.  He joined MetLife in 2000 and progressed through several leadership roles, including technology assignments in US Broker Operations, US Sales and Service, and Asia Pacific Operations.  

Until next time, 

Martha