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CIO Duo Takes Charge At Ameritrade

Co-CIOs will consolidate and redeploy resources; new products planned for fall
Ameritrade Holding Co. is the most recent example of a dual IT-management strategy. Mok Choe and Raymond Dury were named co-CIOs as part of a reorganization last month. The Omaha, Neb., online trading firm lost $77.2 million in its most recent quarter, and saw revenue plunge 13% to $282.2 million.

CEO Joe Moglia says that Choe, who was VP of application development and Dury, who was senior VP of operations for the OnMoney division, will complement each other. Together, they're responsible for an annual IT budget of $100 million and a 400-person decentralized IT group. InformationWeek spoke with Choe about his plans.

InformationWeek: As half of the new CIO team that will lead Ameritrade's just-formed Technology Group, you face lots of challenges. What are your priorities?

Choe: To serve both the private and institutional sides of the business and to consolidate and redeploy resources. Ameritrade will offer new IT-based products this fall or winter for the new divisions.

InformationWeek: How do you feel about sharing the job?

Choe: It's a big job; we're combining our platforms companywide. I feel very good about this. We have a tremendous customer base and a chance to serve our clients even better. We've worked together before, and I'm looking forward to working together. Maybe we can set priorities quicker with this structure, offering two voices on the top management team now.

InformationWeek: How will you divide the workload?

Choe: We don't have plans to divide responsibilities in a certain way. First, we'll see about supporting the divisions. Then, [we'll see] about organizational issues. We bring different expertise and experience: mine in the financial area, Ray in aggregation.

InformationWeek: What about your IT budget and staffing?

Choe: No layoffs or closings are planned. It's the middle of our fiscal year, and we'll continue operating on that budget. The opportunity is to develop new products and eliminate redundancies resulting from many acquisitions.

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