by Martha Heller

Startups are Fertile Ground for CIOs in Search of Something New

Opinion
May 07, 20133 mins
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CIO.com blogger Martha Heller thinks now is the time for CIOs who have entrepreneurial spirit to flex some new muscles.

My good friend, Greg Fell, has been in “traditional IT’ for his entire career. He ran manufacturing IT operations at Ford for six years and then became CIO of Terex for the last seven.  Just recently, he made a major move. He is now Chief Strategy Officer for Crisply, a startup that quantifies work algorithmically and promises to revolutionize the timesheet process. Note: Fell is not CIO or CTO of Crisply; he is Chief Strategy Officer.  The technology start-up world is alive and well, and Fell is not the first or the last CIO to leave IT for a new functional role at a shiny new company.   Technology is changing almost everything we do; now is the time for CIOs who have the entrepreneurial spirit to take a vacation (or departure) from IT leadership and flex some other muscles.

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Tim Waire informed me that was promoted to interim CIO of Quest Diagnostics. Before the move, Waire was the Executive Director of Application Development & Maintenance. Prior to Quest Diagnostics, he held various leadership roles over 14 years at Constellation Energy Group, including Vice President of Information Technology.

Judy Snyder was appointed SVP and CIO at Kelly Services. Snyder replaces Joseph Drouin, who moved to Pulte Group Inc., and will report to George Corona, EVP and COO. Snyder joined Kelly services in 2008 as VP of Global Applications.

Oliver Bussmann will be leaving his role at SAP as Global CIO to join UBS AG as Group CIO beginning June 1. Bussmann had joined SAP in 2009 and prior to that spent nine years in technology roles at Allianz Group.

HomeServe USA Corp., a home repair service provider, named Dave Berry as CIO. In 2010, Berry embarked on several interim CIO campaigns at Ascena Retail Group Inc., TOMS Shoes Inc., Polycom Inc., and smartShift Technologies. Prior to that, Berry served as CIO at Coty Inc., a perfume provider, for 12 years.

Marc Touitou was named San Francisco’s CIO and Director of the Department of Technology by Mayor Ed Lee.  Touitou brings with him 30 years experience in IT, including serving as Senior VP and CIO at ASML, a Dutch semiconductor company, and Rohm and Haas, a French specialty chemical company. Touitou replaced Jon Walton, who left earlier this year.

John Guevara joined Parollon Business Solutions, a healthcare business and operational services provider, as CIO. He will report directly to Parallon’s President and CEO, Michael O’Boyle. Guevara brings more than 25 years of IT leadership experience to Parollon. He has led at IT organizations at companies such as Microsoft, Intermec, and Delphi, Siemens Corporation. Most recently, he served as SVP of Enterprise Services and CIO at Allscripts.

Until next time, 

Martha