Can CIO Deliver For DHL?

After decades with manufacturers, IS chief Riera adapts to service business

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By Karen M. Carrillo
Issue date: May 5, 1997

When Joseph Riera joins DHL Airways this week as its CIO and senior V P, he'll have a lot to learn despite his three decades of IS experience. That's because the express shipping company is the first service business for which Riera has worked.

"I've always been at manufacturing companies, and now I need to understand [DHL's] business so that I can [develop] a strategy that aligns with the business," he says.

Riera joins DHL from Apple Computer, where he started in 1986. His posts at Apple included director of corporate systems for IS and technology, director of manufacturing systems, and director of European IS and technology. The struggling computer maker promoted Riera to its new CIO slot last November, but he decided to leave for DHL, he says, "because it was time to move on."

Acting on a suggestion from a friend who was an IRS auditor, the San Francisco native started his IS career at Control Data Systems in 1963 as a computer operator. "It was fairly new and exciting, and there was rapid change and a lot of opportunity, which allowed for moving up," Riera says . He also served as IS director at Plantronics in Santa Cruz, Calif., manager of computer operations at GTE Sylvania, and computer operations manager for the turbine division of International Harvester.

As DHL's CIO, Riera succeeds Alex Aycinena, who DHL says is moving to another, unspecified IS position.

Riera says the biggest challenge he's faced in his career is keeping up with technology changes. "The Internet has had the most profound effect of any of the computer technologies. Electronic commerce is going to change the way we do business."

Riera says he doesn't yet know what his game plan will be at DHL, which competes with technology heavyweights such as Federal Express and United Parcel Service. "I'm not going in with any preconceived ideas," he says. "What I do plan is to expand their use of IT and bring IT solutions to support their business strategy. I feel it'll be a real opportunity to use my skills and experience to be more competitive."

The business philosophy Riera says he wil l try to keep in mind is that "IT has to understand what it's there for and not lose sight of business needs. Once you have a solid understanding of the business, then use technology to put it ahead ofcompetitors."

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