CIO Values: Sam Coursen, VP And CIO, Freescale Semiconductor

Career Track

How long at current company? Three years as Freescale CIO

Career accomplishment I'm most proud of: Surviving--perhaps even thriving--10 years in the CIO job, including seven years as CIO of NCR.

Most important career influencer: One of the most influential people on my career was the VP of engineering for a major division of AT&T. This person had a huge impact on me during my first job out of school and gave me valuable advice, which I follow to this day. At the time, AT&T was a mammoth organization with many layers of bureaucracy. This executive told me: "About 80% of the people here actively prevent progress from occurring. You want to be in the 20% that drive progress."

Decision I wish I could do over: Early in my career, one of my managers instructed me to fire one of my employees. I didn't feel like it was the right decision, but I went along with it. It bothers me that I didn't advocate for the employee or what I felt was right.

Vision

The next big thing for my industry will be ... energy efficiency. It's the No. 1 challenge facing the engineering community, and semiconductors are at the heart of many energy-saving innovations. This is a huge opportunity for our industry, as are health- and safety-related technologies and rising demand for network bandwidth and pervasive connectivity.

Best advice for future CIOs: Maintain a balanced focus on the efficiency of IT as a business function and its effectiveness in driving value across all other business functions.

On The Job

IT budget (approximate): $200 million

Size of IT team: 500 internal employees, 350 dedicated contractors (offshore programmers)

Top three initiatives:

Personal

College/degree: Bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from Auburn University

Leisure activity: Golf

Best book read recently: A Random Walk Down Wall Street, by Burton G. Malkiel

Last vacation: Europe, including Scotland, Germany, and France

If I weren't a CIO I'd be ... I love being a CIO.