CAMBRIDGE – The 7th Annual MIT Sloan CIO Symposium has announced the four finalists for its 2010 Award for Innovation Leadership. The award honors chief information officers and chief medical information officers for their ability to foster a culture of innovation while delivering best-in-class IT services to support the organizational mission.
The MIT Sloan CIO Symposium is an annual one-day conference, held on the MIT campus, where CIOs and other senior business executives from around the world gather to explore how leading-edge academic research and innovative technologies can help address the practical challenges faced in today’s changing economy.
Senior IT decision makers engage with each other and with thought leaders from academia to find better ways to sustain their leadership in the effective use of technology to improve business performance. The theme of the 2010 MIT Sloan CIO Symposium is, "Top Line Growth and Bottom Line Results: Driving Business Value Through CIO Leadership, Innovation and Collaboration."
Of the four 2010 MIT Sloan CIO Symposium Award finalists, two are from the medical field.
One is James Noga of Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. Noga was named CIO in 1997 after serving as director of clinical application. He holds a bachelor's degree in medical technology and an master's degree in biomedical computing and information processing from the Ohio State University. He's also an instructor in Northeastern University’s graduate health informatics program.
The other is Christopher Rieder of VITAS Innovative Hospice Care in Miami. Rieder joined VITAS as senior vice president, chief information officer in 2009. Prior to VITAS, he held positions at Parexel, Inc. and Kos Pharmaceuticals. He holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Arizona in Tucson and a master's degree in business administration in information technology from the American University in Washington, D.C.
Rounding out the finalists are Casey Coleman of the U.S. General Services Administration and Thomas Nealon of the JCPenney Corp.
After two rounds of review, a panel of judges that includes CIOs, academic researchers and IT professionals selected four finalists who exhibit the key traits of a CIO leader:
- A trusted advisor to senior executives, incorporating IT into business decision-making;
- A consensus builder, reaching across the organization to build support for innovation;
- A business leader, intimately aware of the business, its challenges and opportunities; and
- A proven manager, delivering core services within budget and staff constraints.
“MIT recognizes that innovation is more than excellent technology,” said Ellen Quackenbush, co-chair of the award program. “Breakthrough innovation requires strategic vision and leadership ability to unify people, organizational processes and technology to achieve industry-leading results. Our finalists understand this balance, and the Award for Innovation Leadership recognizes their achievements.”
The Award for Innovation Leadership ceremony will take place during the 7th Annual MIT Sloan CIO Symposium from 4:45 pm to 5:15 pm in the MIT Kresge Auditorium on Wednesday, May 19 in Cambridge.
The full agenda of the MIT Sloan CIO Symposium is available at www.mitcio.com/agenda.
