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CIO As Acquisition Partner

Is the CIO an effective position to enlist in your company's mergers and acquisitions strategy? It makes sense, given that integration is one of the major challenges in an M&A move, particularly integration of the IT variety.

Crowe Chizek, an accounting and consulting firm in Oak Brook, Ill., a suburb of Chicago, has tapped Yvonne Scott as its new CIO. According to a company statement:

"Yvonne's experience in information technology, visioning, strategy development and **mergers and acquisitions** [emphasis mine] will help Crowe maximize operational efficiency and assist us as we continue to grow the firm,” said Crowe CEO Chuck Allen.

Before signing on with Crowe Chizek, Scott was senior VP and CIO for several years at GATX Corp., a company that specializes in asset management and financial services in the railroad and steamship industries. Apparently, Scott left GATX a few months ago: The company announced a new senior VP and CIO in January.

CIOs take note: Selling expertise in supporting mergers and acquisitions looks to be a good career move, in particular as a way of raising your executive profile and business value. So increasing your M&A experience by volunteering to work on merger projects from inception to completion will probably pay dividends later on,

What do you think? Is the CIO already involved in the M&A strategy at your company? And does that include working on the front end, to helping to plan future moves? Or is it simply at the back end, as the person who puts the technology pieces together?

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