Title: Senior vice president and director of common services
Company: National City Corp.
Mentor: Joe McCartin, CIO
How are you being groomed for your next position? It's a combination of exposure to business context -- working with our lines of business to make sure I'm grounded in their objectives, strategies and plans -- and providing me the opportunity (and holding me accountable) for leadership on some of the large transformational activities. This serves in two ways: first, to deliver value to the organization, and second, to build credibility with the senior teams.
What's been your career ladder? After graduating from MIT, I progressed from design engineer through director of engineering roles at NCR Retail Systems. After that, I left to take on the role of president of Holaday Industries, an instrumentation firm. I was brought in to drive a refresh/turnaround in order to enable its acquisition. After the sale, I assumed the role of brand director for Dell Computer's OptiPlex PC product line [and was] responsible for brand management, marketing, portfolio management, etc. From there, I moved to National City (coming back to my hometown of Cleveland) and am currently leading the shared services function within IS. I have been here about four and a half years.
What special skills do you bring to your job? Since my background is broad, with technical depth as well as being accountable for business operations and sales marketing, it allows me to have a fairly good perspective on "fit" -- where things are, where they're going, how to explain things to multiple levels of people in the organization, why we do the things we do. I'm leveraging my background to translate experience into actions while helping coach people. I have a high raw energy level and a passion to continually and radically improve things to help the team win.
What's important about having a career mentor? He or she can impart wisdom. A mentor can provide you with a different perspective, a "portal" of their own experiences, if you will, that can shed some light and insight in order to bring clarity to your perspective. That allows you to determine how you want to -- or don't want to -- apply yourself to your particular situation.
Are you mentoring anyone? Oh yes, I mentor and get mentored from hundreds of people. I do that every day, formally and informally. Formally with my direct leadership staff; informally with all the conversations I have with anyone and everyone I run across. Spending time with as many people as I can helps impart the view from here to help them in their awareness, understanding and fit. It enables them to make better decisions from a professional as well as personal-aspiration perspective, as well as earn their trust, their respect and their commitment to our company's path. Mentoring is an exceptionally healthy activity -- you should get and give a couple of good servings a day!
2006 Premier 100 IT Leaders
Stories in this report:
- 2006 Premier 100 IT Leaders
- How They Were Chosen
- Premier 100 IT Leaders Honor Roll
- Defining Leadership
- IT Heroes
- People First
- Quiz: Are YOU A Top-Tier Leader?
- Words of Wisdom
- Agile By Design
- Cohesive Compliance
- Security Imperative
- Managing Megaprojects
- Foreign Challenge
- Succeeding at Storage
- Speed of Business
- Rebecca A. Blalock: IT Convert
- Terry P. Brooks: Multitask Manager
- Julie F. Butcher: Master Organizer
- Barbara D. Carlini: Agent of Change
- Lev S. Gonick: Community Liason
- John Sullivan: IT Adventurer
- George C. Rimnac: Disciplined Leader
- Mark Popolano: Master of Details
- William Westrate: Tech Strategist
- Elizabeth Hackenson: Business Booster
- In Memoriam: Gerard Higgins
- Protege Profile: Steve Yon
- Ask A Premier 100 IT Leader: Wendell Fox
- The Next Generation of IT
- Protege Profile: Allison Young
- Protege Profile: Michael R. Dean
- Protege Profile: Jairo Orea
- Protege Profile: Bill McCorey
- Protege Profile: Martin Schneider
- Work That Makes Them Cringe
- Leader Do-Overs
- Shark tank: Some Lead, Some Don't
- Data Points: Premier 100 IT Leaders 2006
- Executive Brief: IT Management Best Practices
- Webcast: Secrets of Superspies
- Webcast: The Passionate Pursuit of IT and Business Alignment
- Webcast: Evolving Through Abstraction: On the Way to Utility Computing