James B. Cole, 2014 Honoree

- Title
- Senior vice president and CIO
- Employer
- First National Bank of Omaha
- Location
- Omaha, Neb.
- A recent great deal from a vendor:
- In negotiation with a software provider, I acknowledged their need to make a profit, told them to reduce their price by $1 million and we would have a deal. We signed the next day.
- Coolest current project:
- A hackathon. My CISO hates the name but likes the objective.
- A recent innovative staff idea:
- My security team brought a biometric solution to me that is going to change the way our customer-facing staff members do their jobs.
- How do you evaluate emerging technologies?
- Partner with providers to get it in the lab and then get the business involved right away to ensure adoption.
- How have you surprised your CEO in recent months?
- At a demo of our new mobile app, I slid an iPhone with a cover from his favorite college team to him and asked him to retire his flip phone.