Among other topics, Bruce discusses the following issues with Metis Strategy
Bruce is the Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer, and Chief Administrative Officer of OfficeMax, Inc. With revenue of approximately $8 billion, OfficeMax is a global supplier of office supplies and services with operations in the United States, Mexico, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. As CFO and CAO, Bruce oversees the company’s global financial and administrative activities including controllership, tax treasury, analysis, investor relations, strategy, corporate development, procurement, compensation, internal audit, loss prevention, and financial operations.
Before joining OfficeMax, Bruce served as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer for Circuit City Stores, Inc from 2007 to 2009. Prior to his time with Circuit City, Bruce was Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of the Yankee Candle Company, Inc. as well as Vice President, Finance and Controller for Best Buy, Inc. He also spent time in a variety of roles with Sears, Roebuck and Co. and Atlantic Richfield Co.
Bruce has served on the Finance Executive’s Council of the National Retail Federation and has been featured in business periodicals including Forbes magazine and Harvard Business Review. He is a current member of the Chicago area “CFO Select”, an organization of principal financial officers from leading Chicago-area large public companies. He also serves on the Governing Body of the CFO Executive Summit. He has served on the boards of directors for Mass Mentoring; United Way of Western Massachusetts; and Minnesota Mentoring.
In addition to his financial experience, Bruce has served in the United States Air Force for more than 25 years, rising to the rank of lieutenant colonel. In 2003, Bruce received the Air Medal for numerous aerial combat missions over Iraq and Afghanistan as part of Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom.
Bruce received his Master of Business Administration in Finance and Strategy from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, and he received a Bachelor of Science degree in psychology from the University of Cincinnati.
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Among other topics, Mark discusses the following issues with Metis Strategy
Mark is the chief information officer of BMC Software. In addition to running BMC Software’s IT department, Mark is a rare CIO who makes customer calls, as he helps many of the BMC Software’s customers (who in many cases are CIOs) understand how best to leverage BMC’s offering.
Prior to his time with BMC Software, Mark served as the CIO of four Fortune 300 companies: Corporate Express, Arrow Electronics, Visa International and Occidental Petroleum, making him one of the most seasoned CIOs in the United States. Mark has worked in a variety of industries including consumer products, high tech distribution, financial services and oil & gas. During the early stages of his career, he held P&L responsibilities as the Director of a systems integration business unit within Hughes Aircraft Company.
Mark’s formal education is in the Geological Sciences. He received his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from MIT and a PhD from Brown University. He is also former Air Force officer and NASA Program Scientist.
Among other topics, Bill discusses the following issues with Metis Strategy
Bill is the senior vice president and CIO, of Marsh & McLennan, a global professional services firm providing advice and solutions in the areas of risk, strategy and human capital. Bill is the first corporate CIO at Marsh & McLennan, and in this role he has led the development of the company’s overarching technology strategy and architecture, evaluating platforms, products, and services across the company.
Prior to joining Marsh & McLennan, Bill was CTO at Thomson Financial, where he oversaw the company’s technology and information operations globally. During his time there, Bill and his team streamlined products and functions integrating platforms accumulated through more than 40 acquisitions to successfully increase productivity and improve customer retention.
Prior to his time at Thomson, Bill was chief information and operations officer at Citigroup Inc’s Travelers Life & Annuity and managing director and CTO for Citigroup Global Investment Management. Prior to Citigroup, he was CIO for AIG.
Bill has a BSE degree in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from Princeton University, and an MS in Computer Science from Stanford University.
Among other topics, Remy discusses the following issues with Metis Strategy
Remy is the Chief Information Officer of the Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research (NIBR), Novartis’ global pharmaceutical research organization. The informatics organization in NIBR is responsible for scientific application and scientific infrastructure, as well as any research-specific IT activities and all aspects of information technology infrastructure, platforms and services.
Before joining Novartis, Remy was the CIO for Argonne National Laboratory, a 4,000- person US Department of Energy open science research laboratory operated by the University of Chicago. His emphasis there was on operation of all aspects of the IT infrastructure, including security, and the development and maintenance of all business applications. He also led teams of computer scientists, helping to design and build the fastest supercomputers in the world for open science.
Remy has been an active member of the international high-end computing and networking community for twenty years He serves on the USENIX Board of Directors and PRIME.
Remy received an M.S. in computer science from the University of Oregon, and undergraduate degrees in computer science and mathematics from Andrews University.
Among others, Peter discusses the following topics
Purchase this book from
Chosen as third among “The Best IT Business Books of 2009” by CIO Insight
“What’s unique about this book is that it’s not only a must-read for the CIO (and everyone else in an IT department); it’s for anyone associated with the technology industry. If you are a manufacturer, seller, or service provider of technology, you will gain insight into what makes an IT department world class.” – CIO Digest
“The new book World Class IT (Jossey-Bass, 2009), by consultant Peter A. High, provides solid, timeless advice for CIOs trying to manage IT for business success.” – Mitch Betts, Computerworld Book Review
Technology is all around us. It is so pervasive in our daily lives that we may not even recognize when we interact with it. Despite this fact, many companies have yet to leverage information technology as a strategic weapon.
What then is an information technology executive to do in order to raise the prominence of his or her department? In World Class IT, recognized expert in IT strategy Peter High reveals the essential principles IT executives must follow and the order in which they should follow them whether they are at the helm of a high-performing department or one in need of great improvement.
Principle 1: Recruit, train, and retain World Class IT people Principle 2: Build and maintain a robust IT infrastructure Principle 3: Manage projects and portfolios effectively Principle 4: Ensure partnerships within the IT department and with the business Principle 5: Develop a collaborative relationship with external partners
The principles and associated subprinciples and metrics introduced in World Class IT have been used by IT and business executives alike at many Global 1000 companies to monitor and improve IT’s performance. Those principles pertain as much to the leaders of IT as they do to those striving to emulate them.”
Among other topics, Joey discusses the following issues with Metis Strategy
Joey is Vice-President of Information Technology for Magna International. She has global responsibility for Magna IT and is also chair of the Magna IT Council, which is the governance board for all IT activity within Magna International. Prior to her current position, Joey was Director of IT for Magna Donnelly. She also served as Manager of Global Infrastructure and Manager of Global Support for Donnelly Corporation. Her area of expertise focused on building effective virtual teams to support the global enterprise. Joey has also served as Project Manager and Divisional Manager at Clark Equipment, where she designed and implemented systems for Clark’s international manufacturing facilities and dealer network. Joey’s other experiences include technology and business consultant to Western Michigan University and independent consulting for Fortune 500 corporations and a number of other organizations.
Joey has a B.A. degree in Anthropology from Albion College and a M.A. degree in Sociology Anthropology from Oberlin College.
Among other topics, Jane discusses the following issues with Metis Strategy
Since January of 2007, Jane has been Deputy Commissioner and CIO for the New York City Department of Finance. The Department of Finance is responsible for collecting city revenues. As CIO, Jane is responsible for all systems and technology supporting the Agency’s 20 Divisions.
Prior to joining the Department of Finance, Jane was the General Manager and CIO for Microsoft’s WW Public Sector, where she was responsible for process and technology supporting that business segment. Prior to that, she was the General Manager of .Net Market Development. She and her team were responsible for developing .Net’s market presence, in the Fortune 100 and Global 100 enterprise customer marketplace.
Prior to joining Microsoft, Jane worked for Prudential Financial, where she was the CIO for the company’s Institutional Division. In this role she was responsible for all systems and technology that supported the six businesses in the division. Prior to that position Jane ran all new application development for the Retail Insurance Division at Prudential. Jane has also held key technology positions at Bankers Trust Company and at Chase Manhattan Bank.
Jane has a bachelor of science degree in business administration from the State University of New York at Fredonia.
Among other topics, Ananda discusses the following issues with Metis Strategy
Ananda Rakhit is the Chief Information Officer at NES Rentals, a leader in the $25 billion equipment rental industry, and #1 in aerial lifts. In that capacity, he focuses on improving operational productivity with wireless applications and building business intelligence tools to support both daily operations and management strategy.
Prior to his time with NES Rentals, Ananda was a Vice President in R&D division of Automatic Data Processing, where he led an internet-based product development organization with global teams.
Prior to that, Ananda was a Vice President and CTO of Cadence Design Systems, where he defined architecture direction for consistent web-enabling of information assets through Portals and Web Services.
Prior to his time with Cadence Design Systems, Ananda began his professional career as a research analyst in the Financial Planning organization at United Airlines working his way up to a position of Director of Information Services Division where his accomplishments included leading development of www.united.com and speech recognition applications, and building a flight planning system which saved United $100 million in fuel costs per year.
Ananda has a Ph.D in Systems Engineering from the University of Arizona in Tucson after receiving his BS in Mining Engineering and MS in Industrial Engineering from the Indian School of Mines.
Among other topics, Nirup discusses the following issues with Metis Strategy
Most recently, Nirup was the Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer at The Northern Trust Company. During every year of Nirup’s tenure there, Northern Trust was listed in the top 100 in the Information Week 500 ranking of the Top Innovators in Business Technology, including a placement at number 12 in the most recent ranking released in September 2008. Northern Trust was also consistently ranked among ComputerWorld’s 100 Best Places to Work in IT during Nirup’s time with the bank.
From 1990-2005, Nirup held various positions in the Information Services Division at United Airlines, and for the last three years with the airline, he was Vice President and Chief Information Officer. He has been lauded as one of the key leaders who led the company out of Chapter 11.
Nirup has also worked as a special advisor to Cognizant Technology.
Previously, Nirup has held board positions at multiple companies in his country of origin, India.
Nirup has a Ph.D. in Industrial Engineering from the State University of New York.
Among other topics, Randy discusses the following issues with Metis Strategy
Randy Spratt has been Executive Vice President and Chief Information Officer for McKesson Corporation since July 2005. Spratt is responsible for all internal, infrastructure technology initiatives within the Corporation.
He has been with McKesson for over 20 years, most recently as Chief Process Officer (April 2003 to July 2005) for McKesson Provider Technologies (MPT), the company’s medical software and services division based in Alpharetta, Georgia. He also managed MPT’s Business Development, Information Technology, and Strategic Planning offices, as well as MPT’s Technology Services business.
Prior to joining McKesson, Spratt held executive positions of increasing responsibility at the start-up Advanced Laboratory Systems (ALS), culminating with the role of Chief Operations Officer. ALS was acquired by HBOC in 1996, which in turn was acquired by McKesson in 1999, and Spratt took on responsibility for HBOC’s laboratory systems business shortly thereafter. Following the acquisition of HBOC by McKesson in 1999, Spratt relocated to Georgia to become part of the reconstructed management team.
Spratt earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Biology, with a minor in Computer Science, from the University of Utah.
