Cardinal Health CIO Jody Davids is stepping down from the $91 billion company according to her own plan and will be replaced next week by former Motorola CIO Patty Morrison. Two interesting details around this transition: Morrison will not inherit the other half of Davids' former job - EVP of corporate shared services - and will report to the CEO, which was not the case for Davids.Named two months ago to our Global CIO 50 list of top CIOs from around the world, Davids is resigning to pursue personal interests around the concept of leadership, a quest that stems from a number of changes in her life, including the loss of a son fighting for his country in Iraq. As we noted in our profile of Davids for the Global CIO 50:

"Davids' two sons served with the Marine Corps in Iraq; older son Wes was killed in battle in 2005. That loss was one of the major factors that "changes the lens of what I see and think about," she said, and made Davids decide late last year to develop the transition plan with Cardinal."

When I spoke with Davids earlier this year, she said her replacement would have to be comfortable in the "high-volume, high-velocity" environment that exists at Cardinal, a 100-year-old company with 40,000 employees on five continents. Patty Morrison fits that bill, having led a number of global initiatives at Motorola as well as in her earlier IT-leadership roles at Office Depot, General Electric, PepsiCo, and P&G.

Whereas Davids had to split her time across her CIO role as well as her role of EVP of shared services in which she oversaw finance and HR, Morrison will be able to focus all of her efforts on the CIO position. When she starts one week from today, she'll be reporting to incoming chairman and chief executive officer George Barrett, who in a press release had this to day about Morrison:

"We're very pleased to have someone of Patricia's caliber joining the Cardinal Health leadership team. Her significant experience with systems in large, complex organizations positions her perfectly to execute the long-term IT strategy Jody and her team have developed in support of our company."

If you'd like to hear Patty Morrison's views on the strategic role of the CIO in a global corporation and particularly how CIOs need to interact with corporate boards, please check out our day-long Global CIO Summit virtual event this Wednesday, July 29, which will feature Patty Morrison as featured speaker. You can register at the link above, and see the list of featured speakers - including Patty Morrison - here.