Computerworld - February 27, 2012

Executive vice president
and CIO, Wells Fargo, San
Francisco
Edward
Watson
Executive vice president,
operations and technology,
Fannie Mae, Washington
How have
you incor-
porated
social me-
dia into
your own
work?

Jimmy Z. Wang
PARTNERING WITH BUSINESS HELPS MITIGATE RISK
Skills you’ll hire for this
year:
The char-
acteristic
that’s most
important
to you in an
IT hire:

JIMMY Z. WANG, vice president and CIO at Teva Phar- maceuticals-Americas, says all his decisions carry risk — it’s the nature of IT — but he has strategies to manage it. One way is to rely on others, he says. “I gather with my direct reports to tell me what they think, what challenges or isks they see that I don’t.” Wang says he and his sta;ers also cultivate a culture where
they find ways to mitigate risks so they can successfully develop and de-
liver what’s needed to help the company grow. “Delivery is key for us. We
partner with business, understand their challenges and come up with a
technology and deliver a solution. That’s part of our DNA,” says Wang, 49,
who has been with the North Wales, Pa.-based company for a decade.
He acknowledges that di;erent divisions and employees have vary-
ing requirements, so he and his team spend time understanding those
needs so they can develop the right technology to address them.
Wang says he’s using this approach to respond to the consumeriza-
tion of IT, developing policies to o;er consumer-like devices such as
iPads to workers who need the ease and functionality that they pro-
vide. “We could say no, but we came to the conclusion that we need to
work with them,” he says.
“The one word that everyone would use to describe him is ‘part-
ner,’ ” says Denise Bradley, vice president of corporate communica-
tions at Teva. “They know that he’s going to do whatever he can to
move the business for ward.” ;
Xiaoyan Wang
CIO, business transforma-
tion, Lenovo, Beijing
CIO, Hilton Worldwide,
McLean, Va.

The char-
acteristic
that’s most
important
to you in an
IT hire: We
look for those with technical
expertise, a global mindset
and a passion to practice
continual improvement. We
also look for leaders with the
ability to balance the tactical
and the strategic elements of
our IT plan. Finally, we look
for those with a high potential
to grow.
How are you building an IT
department for the next 10
years? We are enhancing our
global capabilities by building
IT teams across borders and
conducting global projects.