IT Staffers Shed
1,500
Pounds
Kaiser Permanente’s ‘CIO Challenge’
pumps up IT morale while promoting
healthier lifestyles. By Stacy Collett
WITH HIS 50th birthday looming at the end of July in 2010, Frederick Curiel knew he had to lose weight. But as with many IT professionals, the demands of his job had put diet and exercise on
the back burner.
“My lab [results] were ‘frightening,’ according to my doctor,”
recalls Curiel, a computer specialist in the Pleasanton, Calif.,
office of health maintenance organization Kaiser Permanente.
“She wanted me to go on medications.” Curiel preferred to try
diet and exercise, but he says, “I tried a bunch of things and had
lost some weight, but I reached a plateau.”
Fortunately for Curiel, he was about to get a little help from his
IT co-workers.
At about the same time that Curiel needed a nudge, Philip
Fasano, executive vice president and CIO of Kaiser Permanente,
was looking for a little motivation of his own. Coming off an
ankle injury, Fasano needed incentive to get back in shape.
Kaiser Permanente had already begun a companywide eight-week physical activity program and cross-country virtual journey
called “Thrive Across America,” which ran from May to June
2010. Employees and teams were encouraged to track their physical activity via a Web portal. Minutes of exercise were converted
into miles on a cross-country journey.
