05 Jan Computerworld: Three Wisconsin CIOs among top 100 IT leaders
Three Wisconsin CIOs made Computerworld magazine’s recently released list of the top 100 IT leaders in 2004. They were:
• Christopher A. Graham, vice president and CIO of Church Mutual Insurance Company, in Merrill. Church Mutual provides insurance plans to religious organizations, including churches as well as schools, camps and other facilities. It about 90,000 institutional clients across all 50 states.
• Herman Nell, senior vice president and CIO of Fiskars Brands Inc., in Madison. Fiskars Brands has 4,300 employees and markets and distributes products in around 20 countries. It is owned by Fiskars Corporation, out of Helsinki, Finland.
• Barbara F. Piehler, senior vice president and CIO of Northwestern Mutual Financial Network, in Milwaukee. Northwestern is a group of firms offering financial planning and related services.
Finding leaders
Computerworld received 568 nominations for the list. Around 200 nominees returned surveys that were sent to them, and based on their responses and professional references, the magazine chose 100 it thought represented the leaders in their field.
Frank Ace, a member of the executive committee of the Wisconsin IT Directors Council, recommended taking listings such as this one with “a grain of salt.”
“It’s a good thing, but there can be too much marketing influence on the part of the company, or the magazine to make me feel real comfortable,” he said.
“I suspect companies being listed by non-IT-specific sources as ‘best places to work’ would be more influential,” he added.