Ken Piddington, Chief Information Officer of Global Partners LP

Episode Overview

Among other topics, Ken discusses the following issues with Metis Strategy:

• Global Partners IT’s transformation from an order taker to a strategic partner
• The importance of communication in establishing credibility for IT and improving operations
• The way in which IT is focusing on analytics in order to provide the company with a competitive advantage
• The necessity to not only hold vendors to SLAs and manage them effectively in order to ensure you get what you pay for, but also the necessity to share the strategic vision with vendors so that they can more effectively operate on your behalf
• How Global Partners IT engages external clients to build relationships
• IT’s future role in mergers and acuquisition
• Ken’s thoughts on the pros and cons of the hot trends of cloud computing, social media, and iPad in the enterprise

Ken Piddington’s Biography

Ken Piddington serves as the Chief Information Officer of Global Partners LP. In this capacity, he is responsible for setting and achieving Global’s Information Technology strategy and providing information technology services across all divisions of the organization. Since joining Global he has worked to transform Global’s Information Technology group into a strategic asset positioned to scale and contribute to the company’s growth strategy. Prior to being named CIO in June 2010, Ken served as the Director of Applications and Software Development for Global. He is a member of the 2010 Boston CIO Executive Summit Governing Body.

Ken successfully led the development and implementation of an internally developed Energy Trading and Risk Management System in 2009. Code named “Peloton”, this project was a key company initiative which provided the organization with a leading-edge technology solution but also implemented process and operational changes positioning the company for future growth. Ken’s responsibilities for the project included chief architect, project manager and change agent.

Prior to joining Global, Ken was a partner at Lyland Associates, Inc. where he managed the technology division of the company’s energy practice. In this role he served as a technology advisor and led custom development and application implementation projects for its Fortune 500 clients.

Previously Ken had spent 12 years working in the energy consulting and software industry. At Triple Point Technologies he held various positions including Director of Product Development for the company’s flagship product Tempest XL. He has served as a Director for Opportune in their energy practice and as a Senior Technology Consultant for MRE Consulting. Ken has spent his career focused on the energy industry where he has worked with almost 50 clients domestically and internationally.

Ken has spent the past 15 years successfully working in information technology and the energy industry although majoring in Health and PE as a former college football and baseball player at Graceland College. He resides in Massachusetts with family.

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