CIO Profile: Dave Barnes Of UPS

Career Track

How long at UPS: 35 years

Career accomplishment I'm most proud of: Playing a key role on the team that developed the business processes and supporting technology that powered our global expansion has been important to me. But working with an innovative technology team has meant even more.

Most important career influencers: I worked for several senior managers who inspired me. They taught me to take a very active role in my career, seek out new opportunities in areas outside of my comfort zone, and focus on where I wanted to be in the long term.

On The Job

IT budget: $1 billion

Size of IT team: More than 4,400

Top initiatives:

How I measure IT effectiveness: We use a balanced scorecard that has a strong focus on relevant customer and business metrics that address all lines of business. In addition, we look at project- and program-specific metrics.

Vision

The next big thing for my company: I'm excited about a number of emerging technologies. In the immediate future, we'll see an expansion of collaboration platforms and the advancement of predictive analytics.

One thing I'm looking to do better: We've made significant investments in improved infrastructure and will continue work this year to adapt application architectures to make fuller use of these enhancements.

Lesson learned from the recession:Recessions are an opportunity to improve your strengths and come out in a much more competitive position.

What the federal government's top technology priority should be: Security. But on a broader scale, there's an opportunity for the government to leverage the lessons learned in business on how to approach large-scale integration of computing resources and achieve significant cost reductions.

Kids and tech careers: My children are in high school, and technology will play a major role in whatever careers they decide on. Being a member of a technology community will offer them the capability for challenging and financially rewarding careers.

Personal

Leisure activities: Spending time with my family, reading, and being involved with charitable organizations

Business-related pet peeve: Not being able to build and deploy quality technology solutions fast enough

Best book read recently: Atlas Shrugged, by Ayn Rand, which is more pertinent than ever

Personal computer: The new ultrabooks look very promising

Last vacation: In the Florida Panhandle with my family

Ranked No. 39 in the 2011