CIO Profiles: Jimmy Z. Wang Of Teva Pharmaceuticals Americas

Career Track

How long at current company: Eight years

Career accomplishment I'm most proud of: Transforming Teva USA's legacy platform into a common integrated platform of real-time systems. This boosted our ability to integrate acquired companies into our common platform at a speed that becomes a competitive advantage.

Most important career influencer: Bill Marth, president and CEO of Teva, for his insight into the business operation and decision-making process. Bill is able to get buy-in across the organization. He does this through his ability to clearly articulate his vision, letting him rally people in support.

Decision I'd like to do over: There are some hiring decisions I wish I had a second chance at. Resources are a precious commodity, and making a hire that doesn't fit is a drain on the organization. If a person doesn't have the core values and behavior that mesh with the vision of the company, it won't work out.

On The Job

IT budget: $90 million

Size of IT team: 290 employees

Top initiatives:

How I measure IT effectiveness: We use the typical IT measures of scope, budget, ROI, schedule, etc.--but ultimately it's our ability to add real value and meet the needs of our business that determines if we're effective.

Vision

The next big thing for my industry: Recent FDA regulations and healthcare reform are paving the way for biologics--medicinal products created by biological processes. These are important medicines and represent a huge market and tremendous therapeutic value to patients. However, biologics are much more difficult to develop and manufacture than traditional chemical medicines.

The government's top tech priority should be ... Besides security, from a pure IT perspective, the government should be focused on consolidation and shared services.

Kids and tech careers: A career in IT can certainly be rewarding. You're viewed as a problem solver. You can be a developer, a network engineer, a project manager, or somewhere in between. You can be hands-on or get into management. My main advice would be that whichever avenue you pursue, make sure you understand the business you support.

Personal

Colleges/degrees: Southern Methodist University, PhD

Favorite sport: Basketball

Business leader I'd like to have lunch with: Jack Welch, General Electric's former leader

Smartphone of choice: BlackBerry

Last vacation: China

Tech vendor exec I respect most: Google's Eric Schmidt

Ranked No. 48 in the 2010