New US CIO appointments, August 2025

Movers & Shakers is where you can keep up with new CIO appointments and gain valuable insight into the job market and CIO hiring trends. As every company becomes a technology company, CEOs and corporate boards are seeking multi-dimensional CIOs and IT leaders with superior skills in technology, communications, business strategy, and digital innovation. The role is more challenging than ever before — but even more exciting and rewarding! If you have CIO job news to share, please email me!

Neal Sample joins Best Buy as CDTO

Best Buy is a consumer electronics retailer and sells both products and services through retail stores, online, and call centers. Sample was most recently CIO at Walgreens Boots Alliance, where he led all tech strategy and delivery across WBA’s physical and digital properties. Prior to that, he was CIO at Northwestern Mutual. He’s also held tech and commercial leadership roles at Express Scripts, American Express, eBay and Yahoo. Sample holds a BS and MS from the University of Wyoming and an MS and PhD from Stanford.

Southern Company names Hans Brown CITO

Southern Company is an energy provider serving nine million customers across the Southeast and beyond through its family of companies. Brown joins from BNY, where he held several key leadership roles, including executive platform owner for loans enablement, CIO for issuer services and corporate technology, and global head of enterprise innovation. Brown holds an MSc. from Warwick University and an M.Eng from the University of Liverpool.

Tim Langley-Hawthorne named CTO of Love’s Travel Stops

Travel stop and convenience store operator Love’s was founded in 1964 and has 661 locations across 42 states. Langley-Hawthorne was most recently CIO at Hertz, where he rolled out tech-driven solutions across thousands of locations worldwide, and oversaw systems supporting a fleet of over 500,000 vehicles. Before that, he was CIO at Hitachi Vantara, guiding the tech side of several acquisitions from due diligence through integration. He also holds a B.Comm from the University of Melbourne and an EMBA from Pepperdine Graziadio Business School.

QXO appoints Eric Nelson as CIO

QXO is the largest publicly traded distributor of roofing, waterproofing, and complementary building products in the US. Nelson joins from The Kraft Heinz Company where he spearheaded global IT strategy for all corporate functions, including supply chain, R&D, and finance. Before that, he was CIO of Kraft Heinz North America and global head of analytics. Nelson holds a BS from Southern Illinois University.

Gaspare LoDuca named CIO for MIT

MIT is a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and LoDuca is currently VP for IT and CIO at Columbia University. There he launched a new student information system, developed classroom and lab technologies, and implemented tools to support cybersecurity and research data sharing. He also had a lengthy career at Accenture as technology managing director for the firm’s education practice. His consulting work included enterprise system implementations at universities such as Yale, the U of Miami, and Carnegie Mellon.

University of Wisconsin-Madison welcomes Didier Contis as CIO

Founded in 1848, the University of Wisconsin-Madison is a public land-grant university and major research institution. Contis arrives from Georgia Institute of Technology where he most recently served as executive director of academic technology, innovation, and research computing. He holds a Diplôme d’Ingénieur (bachelor’s degree) from the École des Mines de Nantes in France, and an MS from Georgia Tech.

Matt Keen joins Old National Bancorp as CIO

Old National Bancorp is the holding company of Old National Bank. Serving clients primarily in the Midwest and Southeast, it provides services in consumer and commercial banking, and offers comprehensive wealth management and capital markets services. Keen was most recently CIO for Bremer Bank and before that, he was CTO at Two Harbors Investment Corp. Keen holds a BA from the University of St. Thomas.

CHG Healthcare names Theresa O’Leary as CIO

Through CHG Healthcare’s brands — CompHealth, Weatherby Healthcare, Global Medical Staffing, Locumsmart, Nursesmart, CareerMD, and Modio — it provides temporary and permanent placement of physicians and allied health professionals to healthcare facilities across America, and internationally. O’Leary joins CHG from UPS, where she held senior leadership roles, most recently as VP of technology, leading global digital transformation. She holds an MBA from Pace University’s Lubin School of Business.

Bill Poirier named CIO at the University of Central Florida

Founded in 1963, UCF is a metropolitan research university. Most recently, Poirier served as vice chancellor for technology and CIO at the University System of New Hampshire. Before that, he held various leadership roles in state government, K-12 education management, and the US Air Force. Poirier earned a BS from UMass Amherst, an MS from National War College, and an MBA from Strayer College.

Avalara announces Shahan Parshad as CIO

Avalara provides automated tax compliance solutions for businesses and government customers in over 75 countries. Parshad most recently served as CIO at Airtable, where he modernized internal platforms to support the company’s product and enterprise expansion. Before that, he was VP, head of business technology and data at Confluent, where he built and led the business tech and data organization across the US, UK, and India. Parshad has a BBA from Wilfrid Laurier University, a BMath from University of Waterloo, and an MS from Stanford.

Rajeev Khanna named CIO for Trucordia

Trucordia is the group name for an insurance brokerage, based in Lindon, Utah. The Trucordia group of companies offers a broad array of commercial and personal lines, life and health, and employee benefits insurance solutions. Most recently, Khanna served as Global CTO for Aon plc, where he led a global team of 2,000 and managed a portfolio encompassing corporate systems, infrastructure, data analytics platforms, end-user services, and business applications for North America. Prior to Aon, he held key leadership roles at Expedia as VP of global infrastructure services, and at Asurion as senior director of global infrastructure services. Khanna holds a BS from Rutgers University and an MBA from Seton Hall.

Cottage Health Welcomes Ganesh Persad as CIO

Nonprofit Cottage Health provides advanced medical care on California’s Central Coast. Beyond its hospitals, Cottage expands care through primary and specialty clinics, urgent care centers, and 24/7 provider access via Cottage Virtual Care. Persad was most recently corporate director of digital patient experience and transformation at Emory Healthcare, where he led its first-in-the-nation integration of Epic MyChart Bedside TV with Virtual Nursing. He has a BS from Rutgers State University and an MS from Nova Southeastern University.

Tara Cook joins Hinshaw & Culbertson as CIO

With its HQ in Chicago, Hinshaw & Culbertson LLP is a national law firm with more than 500 lawyers and an emphasis in litigation, consumer financial services, corporate and business law, environmental, healthcare, and labor and employment law, as well as professional liability defense, and wealth preservation and taxation matters. Prior to joining, Cook launched TSC Consulting Services, where she advised organizations on aligning technology strategy with business goals, streamlining operations, and adapting new innovative technologies. She was previously CIO at Proskauer Rose and director of IT at Dewey & LeBoeuf. She holds a BS from Ramapo College of New Jersey, and an MS from Stevens Institute of Technology.

New CIO appointments, July 2025

BrandSafway appoints JP Saini as CDIO

Valerie Ashbaugh announced as CIO for McDonald’s

Agam Upadhyay joins Vertex Pharmaceuticals as CIO

Vertiv Appoints Mike Giresi as global CIO

Rafael Sanchez joins Bloomin’ Brands as CIO

Lee Health welcomes Chris Akeroyd as CIO

Kassie Rangel named CIO for Liberty Tax

Neurocrine Biosciences appoints Lewis Choi as CIO

Angel Miranda joins Westgate Resorts as CIO

Genesys announces Trevor Schulze as CIO

Jeff Burke joins Unilever Foods North America as CDIO

Suresh Krishnan joins Memorial Health as CIO

Newrez welcomes Brian Woodring as CIO

New CIO appointments, June 2025

The Home Depot names Angie Brown CIO

Northrop Grumman taps Travis Garriss as CIDO

Debra King joins Stryker as CIO

Sheila Anderson announced as CIDO for Unum Group

Benjamin Heselton joins Lamb Weston as CIO

Culligan International appoints Laura Walsh as Global CIO

David Lampert joins Sheppard Mullin as CIO

Allan Matyger named CIO at WSFS Bank

The American Lung Association announces Keith Tyrka as CITO

Abhijit Bhatwadekar joins Chesapeake Utilities Corporation as CIO

TI Automotive appoints Sheryl Haislet as CIO

Drew Martin joins FAT Brands as CIO

Arcwood Environmental appoints Jeana Thomas as CDIO

Matt Kulangara joins State Compensation Insurance Fund as CIO

New CIO appointments, May 2025

Humana appoints Japan Mehta as CIO

Shekar Pannala named CIO for The Hartford

Genworth announced Morris Taylor as CIO

Prakash Kota joins UKG as CIO

Ahold Delhaize USA welcomes Ann Dozier as CIO

Gerald Charles, Jr., joins Coke Florida as CIO

Arhaus appoints Allison Sutley as CIO

Neil Cowles named CITO for Kaiser Permanente

Ha Hoang joins Commvault as CIO

Precision Medicine Group welcomes Eric Hodgins as CITO

Sprinklr appoints Sanjay Macwan as CIO

Joe Locandro named CIO at Rimini Street

New CIO appointments, April 2025

Providence welcomes Cherodeep Goswami as CIDO

Jennifer Flynn named CIO at Raytheon

Academy Sports + Outdoors appoints Sumit Anand CIO

Michael Bongiovanni joins RateFast as CIO

Textron Aviation appoints Luke Pankey as CIO

Mike Blandina joins Snowflake as CIO

Books-A-Million promotes Brandon Waters to CIO

Revlon appoints Ralph Marshall as CIDO

Anisha Vaswani named CICO for Extreme Networks

The Mutual Group appoints Vineet Bansal as CITO

Silicon Labs welcomes Radhika Chennakeshavula as CIO

Leigh Williams appointed CIO at Augusta Health

Morgan State University names Timothy Summers CIO

Sandesh Parulekar joins Workers Credit Union as CIO

New CIO appointments, March 2025

Citizens Inc. promotes Paula Guerrero to CIO

Breakthru appoints Glenn Remoreras as CIO

Santhosh Kumar announced as CIO at Panera Bread

Ametek appoints Isabel Wells as CIO

Leo Bodden named CIO for WMCHealth

Freeman welcomes Sanjay Shringarpure as CIO

Antonio Carriero joins Fossil Group as CDIO

University of Vermont welcomes Kellie Campbell as CIO

AMS appoints Alan Segal as CDTO