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25 Most Influential CTOs 2002
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VISIONARY LEADERS KNOW that there are lessons
to be learned at every moment in history, even the
most difficult of times. It's fair to say that 2002
has been a bleak year for IT, but the 25 Most
Influential CTOs InfoWorld honors here have seized
opportunities in this downturn. They have created
more integrated systems and efficiencies in their
organizations, driving not only cost savings but also
innovative ways of doing business that will serve
their employers well when the economy turns
around. While helping their own companies and
organizations, these executives have continued to
keep an eye on trends and developments that will
shape the future of technology. Some are taking
leading roles in standards debates, while others are
fostering community relationships with fellow IT
executives, building a strong peer network, and
strengthening the knowledge base of the
enterprise.
What differentiates our influential CTOs and top IT
executives from others is that far from seeing only
the limits in this difficult period in IT history, they
know the last year has really been about creating
opportunities to align technology even more closely
with core business strategies. Some of them work
for companies that have taken a beating in the
current economic climate, but they have continued
to strive for improvement.
InfoWorld's 25 Most Influential CTOs are
pragmatists and strategists at the same time. They
play a leading role in enabling their organizations to
engage in something that Hal Varian, dean of the
school of information management and systems at
University of California, Berkeley, refers to as
"recombinant growth," which has helped drive
technology innovation in the past and will continue
to drive it in the future. "The component parts
[are] ... things like HTTP and XML," Varian says
(see "The economics of innovation." "All of these
protocols and pieces of software and standards
have been combined and recombined to create all
sorts of new innovations."
Past boom/bust technology cycles in history --
say, for example, the era of railroads -- offer
perspective on today's economy. When the railroad
era went bust, it left miles of excess tracks that
were useless when the next wave of transportation
technology, the automobile, came along. Varian
says today's technology is much more fungible.
"You can put it to lots of different uses, even after
the capacity has been put in place."
History has many lessons to teach leading
technologists, but perhaps one of the most difficult
to practice is the notion that persistence and the
daily struggle for excellence pays off. For our 25
Most Influential CTOs, profiled here by writers Eve
Epstein, Jack McCarthy, Loretta W. Prencipe,
Stephanie Sanborn, and Scott Tyler Shafer,
continuous improvement is a career credo. We
have never needed these CTOs' skills more than we
do now.
Gene Rogers, Boeing
Randy McCoy, CheckFree
Kevin Vasconi, Covisint
Dawn Meyerriecks, DISA
Terry Milholland, EDS
Julie St. John, Fannie Mae
Norman Lorentz, Federal Government (OMB)
Larry Biagini, General Electric
Tony Scott, General Motors
Duane Ebesu, Housing Works
Mark Halstead, Keen
Wade Hennessey, Kontiki
Allan McLaughlin, LexisNexis
John McKinley, Merrill Lynch
Alex Zoghlin, Orbitz
Max Levchin, PayPal
Rodric O'Connor, Putnam Lovell
Gerhard Eschelbeck, Qualys
Mike Sayers, Reuters
Dave Moellenhoff, Salesforce.com
Phil Wiser, Sony Music Entertainment
Phyllis Michaelides, Textron
Jim Barton, TiVo
Peter Tippett, TruSecure
Rob Robless, United Air Lines Loyalty Services
Runners up
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Editor's Note |
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Selecting this year's
honorees for the 25 Most
Influential CTOs was difficult
for the InfoWorld editorial
committee because the
caliber of all the entries was
so high. We could not have
narrowed down the field
without the considerable
help of the InfoWorld CTO
Advisory Council. Every
nominee's entry was
reviewed by at least two
advisory council members,
who ranked each nominee
in a number of categories.
Our thanks to these busy
CTOs for their time and
especially for their insights,
which helped enormously in
making our final decision.
(Advisory Council members
were allowed to submit
entries, but their
submissions were reviewed
by other council members.
Among the winners were
nine CTO Advisory Council
members: Gene Rogers,
Boeing; Randy McCoy,
Checkfree; Kevin Vasconi,
Covisint; Dawn Meyerriecks,
Defense Information
Systems Agency; Julie St.
John, Fannie Mae; Norman
Lorentz, Office of
Management and Budget;
Tony Scott, General Motors;
Mark Halstead, Keen; Phyllis
Michaelides, Textron.)
We asked this year's
nominees to provide us with
a brief biography and to
answer the following
questions: How have you
demonstrated leadership
within your organization and
in the broader CTO
community? What is the size
of your organization? What
special project, technology
innovation, or
implementation have you
spearheaded in the last
year? What steps have you
taken to push your
organization forward,
despite tight resources?
The answers we received
from all of the nominees
were inspiring and prove
that despite the economic
downturn, the innovative
spirit is alive and well.
Again, our congratulations
to all the winners and
runners-up for their
achievements.
Eve Epstein
Executive Editor
CTO Media |
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