Say hello to the fresh CIO faces of the summer

Dive Brief:

A wave of new CIOs is settling in this summer, according to data collected by CIO.com. Dave & Buster's hired JP Hurtado, a technology executive from Royal Caribbean Cruises, and petrochemical services company Petrofac brought on GE's global executive CIO and VP of IT Allan Cockriel.
In the retail space, Carter's named Ben Pivar, former VP of retail IT and IT supply chain, as CIO of OshKosh B'gosh in February, according to Pivar's LinkedIn. Sally Gilligan, a former supply chain executive, became CIO of Gap Inc. And in April, and Hudson's Bay named the former CVS CIO, Stephen Gold, as chief technology and digital operations officer last month.
Novant Health hired Lety Duran Nettles, a former Baker Hughes VP, to improve the patient and employee digital experience, and Tenet Healthcare named Paola Arbour CIO following her presidency at ProV International. Matt Pammer joined Prime Therapeutics from AstraZeneca, where he was VP of global commercial IT.

Dive Insight:

With any new generation of leaders, change will take time. Building out an effective IT strategy is a long process, and with more than two-thirds of CIOs describing their digital strategy as moderately effective or worse, it's one process that shouldn't be rushed.

Taking stock of digital infrastructure and business imperatives can take months, and rushing into big changes in the first 100 days — sometimes even within the first 6 months — can cause mistakes and problems, according to Fumbi Chima, global CIO of Fox Networks Group, in an interview with CIO Dive. Taking time and bringing in others will build trust for new executives and create more learning opportunities.

Despite vastly different industry verticals, the latest wave of CIOs, CTOs and CDOs will juggle many of the same problems, from transforming and innovating with IT on a tight budget to striving for a voice and seat at the management table.

Establishing relationships and trust in peer networks, to build off one another's knowledge, advice and ideas, can make all the difference when it comes time to sink or swim.

Technology leaders also benefit from taking the time to learn about the other members of the executive management team, according to Khushbu Pratap, principal research analyst at Gartner, speaking at the Gartner Security & Risk Management Summit in National Harbor, Maryland in June. Learning about their backgrounds, biases and passions serves to both build relationships and tailor presentations in the most effective way to receive approval or backing, financial or otherwise.