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CIO As Outsourcing Expert

In the ongoing discussion of the expertise necessary to succeed as a CIO, let’s not overlook knowledge and experience in handling multiple -- perhaps overlapping -- outsourcing relationships. For some companies, that’s the prerequisite.

Qantas, Australia’s largest airline, announced earlier this week that it has hired a new CIO. That person’s name is Jamila Gordon, and she comes to Qantas from IBM, where she spent the past six years managing “some of the world’s largest strategic outsourcing initiatives in France and the Netherlands,” according to a statement by the company.

“Most recently, [Ms. Gordon] was responsible for the IT transformation strategy and end-to-end IT service delivery across 11 countries for a major European bank,” said Qantas CFO Peter Gregg.

Gordon is the airline’s third CIO in 18 months. She’s replacing current CIO John Willett, who will retire in October. Willett replaced Qantas’s long-time CIO Fiona Balfour in February 2006, when Balfour left the airline to become CIO at Telstra, an Australian telecom and IT services company.

While at Qantas, Balfour had negotiated major outsourcing deals with IBM and Telstra. After Balfour left, Qantas signed multi-million-dollar outsourcing deals with Indian IT services providers Tata and Satyam.

Qantas’ aggressive and wide-ranging outsourcing strategy is what led the company to hire Gordon. According to Gregg, Gordon has “the broad ranging experience in the global IT industry and expertise in managing complex outsourced arrangements necessary to lead the next stage of Qantas’ IT transformation.”

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