Cardinal Health's New CIO On Board Of Firm IBM Is BuyingCardinal Health's New CIO On Board Of Firm IBM Is Buying

It's been quite a week for former Motorola CIO Patty Morrison: first she's named CIO of $91 billion Cardinal Health, and then a couple of days later IBM agrees to acquire SPSS, on whose board she sits, for $1.2 billion. And third, tomorrow Morrison will be a featured speaker at our online Global CIO Summit virtual event: "Driving Business Value and Customer Value in the Global Economy."Morrison's first day as CIO at Cardinal Health will be Monday, August 3, and it could have been awkward for her to undertake that new position while also serving on the board of a software company whose products Cardinal Health might or might not decide to buy.

But IBM's announcement of its intention to acquire SPSS for $50 a share - a 42% premium over SPSS's share price at the time of the announcement - will remove that potential awkwardness and any sense of conflict of interest that might have arisen. Morrison will retain her position as a member of another publicly held company, Jo-Ann Stores Inc., and she also serves on the boards of non-profits the Lyric Opera of Chicago and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. As we noted yesterday, in taking the CIO spot at Cardinal Health, Morrison replaces long-time CIO Jody Davids, who nine months ago decided to step down at this time so that she can focus on writing and speaking about leadership issues. And tomorrow, you can hear Patty Morrison talk about CIOs' interactions with boards of directors during our day-long virtual event, which you can attend online by registering here. We'll have a dozen world-class CIOs and other experts offering the latest strategies on how business-technology leaders can help their companies drive business value and customer value in the global economy - please join us.