Center For Digital Strategies

Americas Chapter Member
Bill Blausey is vice president and chief information officer of Eaton Corporation, a global $14 billion diversified industrial manufacturer. Mr. Blausey assumed his current position in January 2006 after serving as vice president, Information Technology for Eaton’s Fluid Power Group beginning in 2001. Prior to Eaton, he worked at Aeroquip-Vickers, first as a programmer and then holding positions of increasing responsibility in financial applications and manufacturing systems including directing ecommerce initiatives for Aeroquip-Vickers. The company was acquired by Eaton Corporation in 1999. Mr. Blausey earned a bachelor’s degree in computer science from Bowling Green State University in Ohio.

European Chapter Member
Urs Bleisch is responsible for the development and implementation of the global IT strategy for the Holcim Group. Prior to his current role, he was Head of IT for the Swiss subsidiary of Holcim Group. He was also responsible for the process-related organizational matters of the operative subsidiary. This included overall responsibility for the introduction of SAP in more than 70 Swiss companies, which constituted a pioneering effort with SAP R/3. Before joining Holcim, Mr. Bleisch was Head of IT for Switzerland and on a global scale project manager responsible for all the IT matters of a multinational trading company. He began his career as a computer science trainee and gained experience in project management and strategy projects in a large company in the chemical and pharmaceutical industry. Mr. Bleisch graduated in economics (Master's degree), specializing in marketing, at Basle University.

Americas Chapter Member
Frank Boncimino is SVP and CIO of Time Warner Cable. He’s responsible for designing and executing the IT strategy for the company and its divisions. He has overseen the implementation of a full suite of ERP/PeopleSoft applications, from inventory control to general accounting and employee web self-service capabilities. He developed a BSS strategy that included the creation of a common billing system platform to facilitate new regional business and operational practices with the customer care and marketing organizations. Before joining the Time Warner Cable in 2003, Mr. Boncimino was VP/Partner of Telecom, Media and Networks at Cap Gemini Ernst and Young. Mr. Boncimino earned his BS in Business Administration, with a concentration in Management Information Systems (MIS) and financial decision support systems (FDSS) from the University at Albany, NY.

Americas Chapter Member
Timothy Graven (T.J.) is the Vice President and Chief Information Officer at Brown-Forman Corporation in Louisville, Kentucky. In this position, he is responsible for providing technology vision and advocacy, leadership of the company’s global IT efforts, and defining priorities for fundamental organizational transformation. Brown-Forman, founded in 1870, is a producer and marketer of fine quality adult beverages, including Jack Daniel’s, Southern Comfort, Canadian Mist, Finlandia Vodkas, Herradura and el Jimador Tequilas, Chambord Liqueur and Chambord Vodka, Woodford Reserve, Sonoma-Cutrer, and Korbel California Champagnes. Brown-Forman is among the top 10 largest spirits companies in the world and sells its brands in more than 135 countries across the globe. Prior to this position, Graven served as Vice President, Director of Investor Relations for Brown-Forman. Graven joined Brown-Forman in 1998 as a Finance Team Lead. In 1999 he was appointed to Manager, Planning & Analysis, and was subsequently named Controller for the Wine Group. He has also served as the Director of Enterprise Systems with the Information Technology Team. Prior to joining Brown-Forman, Graven was a consultant for SAP America, Inc. where he worked with Fortune 500 clients to apply technology to improve business processes. Graven earned a Bachelor’s degree in Finance from Indiana University and an MBA with high distinction from the University of Notre Dame.
 

Americas Chapter Member
Randy Krotowski is vice president and chief information officer of Caterpillar Inc. He has responsibility for Caterpillar's Global Information Services division, which includes the corporation's in-formation technology systems and global security. Krotowski joined Caterpillar in February 2012, from Chevron Corporation where he was chief information officer for Chevron's worldwide exploration and production business. He was responsible for the company’s global information technology (IT) strategy and IT operations in 23 countries. During his 29-year tenure with Chevron, Krotowski held engineering, marketing and information technology management positions in the United States and Canada. Prior to being named chief information officer, his career at Chevron included IT positions with responsibilities for Chevron subsidiaries in Canada, Latin America and global strategic planning for Chevron Corporation. Krotowski is a native of Toronto, Canada, where he graduated from the University of Toronto with a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering. He earned his MBA from Golden Gate University in San Francisco, California. Krotowski is a member of the Association of Professional Engineers, Geologists and Geophysi-cists of Alberta and is a past board member for the Houston Food Bank. He serves on the CIO Leadership Council and the CIO Institute Advisory Board with the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. About Caterpillar For more than 85 years, Caterpillar Inc. has been making sustainable progress possible and driv-ing positive change on every continent. With 2011 sales and revenues of $60.138 billion, Caterpil-lar is the world’s leading manufacturer of construction and mining equipment, diesel and natural gas engines, industrial gas turbines and diesel-electric locomotives. The company also is a leading services provider through Caterpillar Financial Services, Caterpillar Remanufacturing Services, Caterpillar Logistics Services and Progress Rail Services.

European Chapter Member
We are pleased to welcome Volker as our newest roundtable member.
(Bio coming soon.)

Meg McCarthy is Executive Vice President, Operations and Technology. She is responsible for clinical innovation, technology and service operations. Meg also has responsibility for process and performance improvement, procurement and real estate services for Aetna, Inc.

Ms. McCarthy served as Vice President and Head of Business Solutions Delivery at Aetna, which brought together all IT project management, development, quality engineering and IT-related business-process reengineering functions, necessary to create, develop and deliver end-to-end business solutions. She also has served as Aetna's CIO.

Prior to joining Aetna in 2003, Ms. McCarthy was Senior Vice President of Information Technology at CIGNA Healthcare in Bloomfield, CT. She has 30 years of information systems and health care operations experience, with strengths in hospital, insurance and managed care business and systems. Her operations and consulting experience includes cost management, mergers, productivity management, care management, clinical work redesign, financial management, and information systems design and implementation. Ms. McCarthy has also worked in the hospital industry in CIO positions at Catholic Health Initiatives, Denver, CO, one of the largest Catholic Systems in the country and at Franciscan Health System. She was a consulting partner at Ernst & Young in the IT and Performance Improvement practice and also was with Andersen Consulting (Accenture) as a Senior Manager. Ms. McCarthy has been recognized as one of Insurance & Technology Magazine's “Elite 8” and Computerworld’s Top 100 leaders.

Ms. McCarthy has a Master of Public Health (MPH) degree, Hospital Administration, from Yale University, and a B.A. in Philosophy, Magna Cum Laude, from Providence College. Her professional affiliations include Yale University Hospital Administration Alumni Association and Yale University Delaware and Massachusetts Alumni Associations. Ms. McCarthy's military experience includes U.S. Navy Medical Services Corps; Lieutenant at Bethesda Naval Hospital; and U.S. Navy Reserves, Lieutenant Commander.

Americas Chapter Member
Dickie Oliver is Vice-President of Global IT for Yum! Brands, Inc., (NYSE:YUM) the world’s largest restaurant company in terms of system units with over 37,000 restaurants in more than 120 countries and territories. Yum! Brands, with more than 1.4 million employees and franchise associates worldwide, is the parent company to KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell.  In 2011, Yum! Brands generated more than $12 billion in total revenues, including company sales and franchise fees.

As VP of Global IT, Dickie is responsible for Architecture, Security, Compliance, Messaging, Networks, Applications and Monitoring on a global basis for Yum! Brands.  He has spent 14+ years at Yum! Brands, in various roles of increasing accountability within the Yum! IT organization.  This has included IT leadership positions within individual Yum! Brands, Yum! Shared Services and Yum! Corporate organizations.  Dickie has 20 years of experience in IT related areas including Development, Consulting, Project Management and IT Leadership.

Prior to joining Yum! Brands in 1996, Dickie was an Engineering Consultant and Instructor at PowerCerv, Inc. in Augusta, GA.  PowerCerv is a small consulting firm specializing in relational database education and PowerBuilder knowledge with Fortune 500 clientele.  Prior to PowerCerv, he served as Sr. Development Engineer at DuPont de Nemours, Inc. and Westinghouse, Inc.  His responsibilities included all areas of project management and all levels of development and DBA work.

Dickie is currently a board member for Volunteers of America in Louisville.  He has presented at multiple IT conferences and won the Westinghouse Malcolm Baldridge award for IT excellence.

Dickie earned his BBA in Finance, his BBA in Management and his minor in Computer Science from Eastern Kentucky University in Richmond, KY.

Americas Chapter Member
Roland Paanakker, Nike VP Lean Business Solutions /CIO Nike Inc. since June 2005, has overall responsibility for Nike’s worldwide Information Technology, the Process & Technology Portfolio Management and Lean Business Enablement. In his role, Roland is responsible for worldwide Information Technology Strategy, IT Architecture, Infrastructure Operations, Enterprise Data Governance, Solution Development & Support. In addition, he is responsible for development and roll out of Lean, Program Management and Transition Management practices worldwide. At Nike, Roland held various executive positions in IT and Supply Chain Operations in Europe and the US. Prior to joining Nike EMEA in 1995, Roland worked for IBM the Netherlands for 10 years in a variety of IT and Program Management positions. With close to 25 years experience in IT and Business Management roles, Roland has a business value-oriented approach towards Lean Business Enablement and Information Technology. Roland holds a Bachelors degree in Business Administration and Information Technology from the Netherlands.

Americas Chapter Member
Mr. Pappier currently serves as the chief information officer at Tenaris. Previously, he served as planning director. He began his career within the Techint group in 1984 as a cost analyst in Siderar. After holding several positions within Tenaris and other Techint group companies in 2002, he became chief of staff of Tenaris. He assumed his current position in May 2010. Mr. Pappier is an Argentine citizen.

European Chapter Member
Martin Petry became Hilti’s CIO in 2005. He is responsible for 400 IT employees based in Schaan,Tulsa, Oklahoma and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. In recent months, Martin was asked to be in charge of Hilti’s Business Excellence initiatives. He first came to Hilti in 1993 and has held various leadership roles, including project manager of Oracle Applications implementations in Great Britain and in Japan, head of second-level support for Oracle Applications, IT Strategy development. Mr. Petry currently heads Hilti’s global SAP implementation project of standard business processes and SAP (global single system/single instance approach with ERP, BI, CRM and SCM) now being used by 15,000 users in 40 countries. He has headed up Hilti’s global SAP implementation since 2000. Mr. Petry earned his PhD in applied mathematics from Georg-August University in Göttingen.

European Chapter Member
Al-Noor has been at the forefront of the internet revolution for 20 years – harnessing the power of innovative technology to bring transformation to the banking and telecommunications industries. Al-Noor began his career on the financial trading floor and spent the 1990s transforming the banking back office function. He was the head of operations for Credit Suisse First Boston (CSFB), where he was responsible for back office management of new issues, trading in fixed income, equities, foreign exchange, money markets, and FRNs.  Al-Noor took on the additional responsibility of co-founding Credit Suisse First Products (CSFP) where he was responsible for operations of financial derivatives. As CIO of Swiss Bank Corporation, Al-Noor managed seven mergers and multiple stock brokers. He was promoted to COO, Europe, where his responsibilities included the P&L for the global custody business, IT and operations. Al-Noor then joined Dresdner Kleinwort Benson, as global CIO, where he built new revenue streams. His main focus was to deliver the Investment Bank on the Web as a new business. He joined BT, in 2004, with a vision for radical change – transforming a traditional telco into a softco. As the CEO of BT Innovate and Design he was responsible for technology strategy and delivery. Al-Noor was also the executive-in-charge of BT’s end to end customer experience programme, focused on Right First Time (RFT). He also led the 21CN global network programme investment of £10b, upon which BT’s innovative product and services are delivered, including the UK’s largest Ethernet footprint. Prior to BT, Al-Noor was Executive Vice President, Chief Information Officer and Chief E-Commerce Officer for Qwest Communications, where he led the IT and internal network functions and customer web hosting and was responsible for business and billing operations. Previously Al-Noor was the founder and Group CEO of Webtek Software, one of the leading software houses in India and the first to focus on web technologies during the 90s. Profitable within the first year, and with rapid revenue growth – the firm differentiated itself on the quality of its people, who were drawn exclusively from the, as yet unknown, IITs - and its focus on product innovation. Born and raised in Tanzania, Al-Noor is a chartered financial analyst with a BSc in Electronics from the University of London.
 

Americas Chapter Member
Mr. Ramleth is senior vice president and chief information officer of Bechtel Group, Inc., where he leads the global Information Systems and Technology organization. Prior to rejoining Bechtel in January 2002, Mr. Ramleth held leadership positions for a variety of companies in the technology and communications industry. Among his responsibilities in those roles, he defined strategy and market position and secured multiple forms of financial resources. Previously, Mr. Ramleth served as chairman and CEO of DigiPlex S.A., based in Zurich, Switzerland, which owned and operated large communications and networking facilities throughout Europe. Prior to that, he served as president and CEO of Genuity, a Bechtel Enterprises company formed to deliver Internet and data services. Mr. Ramleth has held management positions with Oracle, PageMart, and PacTel Personal Communications.

European Chapter Memeber
In 1981, Terence Stacey entered the Nestlé Group as a Systems Analyst in South Africa. In 1995, he moved to Australia in a key role in the Business Excellence & Common Application (BECA2) team, where he subsequently progressed to the position of BECA Manager. He was then promoted to Head of the GLOBE Center AOA when the GLOBE Program1 kicked off in 2000.  He remained in this position until August 2008. From September 2008 to June 2010, he held the position of GLOBE Center Manager for Europe based in Frankfurt. He then relocated to Vevey and, following the merger of the 3 GLOBE Centers into one, he occupied the position as Head of the single GC focused on implementation. In November 2011, he was promoted to GLOBE Director and Group CIO.

Americas Chapter Member
Keith Sturgill is vice president and chief information officer at Eastman. Prior to this role, he was the director of the IT Program Office at Eastman Chemical Company. Mr. Sturgill has broad responsibility for enabling business value through the application of information technology. His organization delivers technology to nearly 11,000 Eastman employees spread throughout the company’s international operations. Mr. Sturgill's management responsibilities have included the development, support, and implementation of global marketing, business and supply chain systems and leading IT architecture efforts that enable Eastman to continue delivering mission critical applications that are reliable, cost effective and flexible. He is also responsible for delivering integration services including B2B, EDI, internal integration, web services and BPM to the corporation. Mr. Sturgill holds a bachelor’s degree in computer science from Virginia Tech.

Andy Tidd, Group CIO for ABB, is responsible for IT strategy, project delivery and operations for ABB globally.  Since 2007, Andy has held a variety of positions at ABB in China and Switzerland. From 2007 – 2010, he was Region CIO for North Asia. The focus in this period was to implement a single SAP system for the rapidly growing North Asia business and systematic improvement in the resilience of IS operations and customer satisfaction. During this period Andy was recognized by CEO / CIO Magazine as one of the top CIO’s in China and awarded a prize for excellence in Operations. From 2010 to November 2011, Andy was global Division CIO for ABB’s Discrete Automation and Motion Division, based in Zurich.  Before joining ABB Andy worked for EDS, PwC Consulting and IBM primarily in the UK and Australia, developing a broad experience in IS from IS Strategy to Operational excellence. He has significant experience with ERP implementation.

European Chapter Member
Per-Åke Tobiasson is Head of Global IM for the Tetra Pak Group. He is responsible for IT worldwide in the Tetra Pak Group, which has three IT centres, with 500 IT employees in Singapore, Lund, and Denton, Texas. The Tetra Pak Group turnover is Euro 9 bio and has 21 000 employees, and sales in more than 170 countries. Mr. Tobiasson has served in the Swedish Military Service, and he holds a BSc in Business Administration from the University of Lund, Sweden.