It was Marty Larson's business acumen as much as his technology background that led to his promotion to CIO and VP of E-commerce at Consolidated Freightways early this year. And it was his understanding of technology that recently propelled his move to senior VP of sales and marketing.

In his new role at the $2.3 billion trucking company in Vancouver, Wash., Larson oversees the directors of eight departments related to sales and marketing. He also will continue to head the company's E-commerce efforts.

For Larson, crossing over into sales and marketing marked a return to the familiar: He began his career at Consolidated Freightways 20 years ago as a sales executive in the air freight division. In 1991, he moved to the IT department to manage strategic customer support. Since then, Larson has integrated marketing and IT, starting with an initiative to implement technology to better market to the trucking company's core customers. When he launched the company's first foray into E-commerce, he made sure Consolidated Freightways was among the first shipping companies to offer online tracking.

Larson says that his 10-plus years in marketing makes it easier for his new reports to accept him. "Once you wear that technology banner, people put you in that box," he says. "The best thing I have going for me is being a known entity."

His initial focus is on boosting revenue, a task that's complicated by the fact that as a consolidating shipper, the company's average shipment size is less than 1,000 pounds. In trucking, where margins are thin, multiple loads per truck increase the possibility of unforeseen problems, such as damage claims. That's even more of an issue now, given the acceleration of the economic downturn following the Sept. 11 attack.

"I have to use limited resources and align them with the corporate business strategy," Larson says. "I want to maximize our sales force's time to get the greatest return."