Bill Brown Senior VP, IT Infrastructure Services, Iron Mountain

How long at current company: Three years

Career accomplishment I'm most proud of: First was starting a PC direct-marketing company, PCs Compleat, with two partners, including building the

IT and distribution operations. Second, after we sold the company, I spent four years serving at a private Catholic high school, Xaverian Brothers High School. It was a very fulfilling experience.

Most important career influencer: I originally planned my undergraduate work around education, but my grandmother told me I wouldn't make a living for myself and steered me to the technology field. Secondly, one of my former business partners found a way to get his employees to reach deep within themselves to excel. He also demonstrated unwavering integrity and honesty, which has heavily influenced the way I approach my business relationships.

Decision I wish I could do over:There've been a few doomed projects I wish I'd pulled the plug on earlier, but I have no regrets.

The next big thing for my business will be ... the convergence of physical and digital assets (documents, backup, e-mail, etc.), which is changing the game for the types of services and service modalities we will offer.

Best advice for future CIOs: Concentrate on areas where you may be uncomfortable, especially when coming from a technology background--i.e., building relationships, spending time with business partners, etc. Also, find innovative ways to communicate with team members and constituents.

IT budget: Plus or minus $80 million

Size of IT team: About 400

Top three initiatives:

• Create an analytical infrastructure and enterprise information architecture. Establishing a data strategy and improved analytics is a real need for us.
• Continue systems modernization. We are decomposing and refactoring several of our legacy systems.
• Achieve global data center competency. Much of our archive is digital. We need to store data in the right place based on customer and regulatory (data privacy) requirements, and we need to do it the most cost-effective way possible.

How I measure IT effectiveness: We're investing a great deal of effort in assessing and communicating the business value of IT.

Colleges/degrees: Bachelor in mathematics, Bridgewater State; MBA, Babson College

Leisure activity: I have a USCG captain's license and enjoy offshore fishing.

Last vacation: We live on the water on Cape Cod, so every day is like vacation.

If I weren't a CIO, I'd be ... a charter captain in Cabo San Lucas!