The Changing Role of the CIO – Peter Aiken

The Changing Role of the CIO

CIOs as a "C-level" position have been around for approximately 20 years. Organizations have generally recognized the need for a single leader to be accountable for applying organizational data assets to their strategy.  This is similar to having a CFO bear the ultimate responsibility for the organization's financial assets.  However, unlike a CFO (who is today expected to have a Master's in Accountancy, a CPA, or other recognized degrees/certifications), most CIO's do not have this precisely defined qualification.  In the face of vastly increasing organizational data volumes and challenges, it is now time to assess these collective results and rethink this critical business function.  The talk will explore the historical context from which CIOs evolved, examine the current states of most organizations, and conclude that by most measures the CIO function has been an abysmal failure.  The talk concludes with a proposed remedy - the data-focused CIO as a critical business function with a more properly labeled CTO taking on the tactical responsibilities of the former CIO.

Peter Aiken, Ph. D. is widely acclaimed as one of the top ten data management authorities in the world.  In addition to examining the data management practices of more than 500 organizations, he has spent multi-year immersions with organizations as diverse as the U.S. Department of Defense, Deutsche Bank, Nokia, Wells Fargo, the Commonwealth of Virginia, and numerous other high profile clients.  As President of DAMA International, his expertise in the practice is unquestioned.  He has been an Associate Professor at Virginia Commonwealth University's School of Business Information Systems Department since 1993 and owns Data Blueprint, an award-winning data management and IT consulting firm.