Career Track

How long at current company: 15 years

Career accomplishment I'm most proud of: Developing the company's Internet strategy. We created a number of innovative new products, including e-Pricing, an airline shopping engine; received our first patent for an airline availability cache; and developed numerous monitoring and performance tools as a result of the initiative.

Most important career influencer: Ray Cohen, a former boss at United Airlines. Ray gave me the opportunity to move from IT into the business and sponsored me for several special assignments. Having both business and IT experience really launched my career.

Decision I wish I could do over: I felt strongly that we should develop our own Internet travel booking engine, but a commercial decision was made to use third-party products. That approach failed, and my team was responsible for fixing the situation. I should have been more forceful in making the business case to develop our own solution.

Vision

The next big thing for my business will be ... "green" initiatives. This will range from providing carbon-tracker information to corporations and travelers to ensuring that our company, our employees, and the data center operate in a "green" fashion.

Best advice for future CIOs: It's all about the people, and communication is key. Make sure your front-line managers understand the strategy, objectives, metrics, and business drivers. If you have a committed, well-informed, well-prepared, and motivated staff, you will be successful.

On The Job

Size of IT team: More than 700 staff supplemented by more than 500 contractors

Top three initiatives:

Personal

Colleges/degrees: BA in math, Southern Illinois University; MBA, Northern Illinois University

Favorite leisure activity: Spinning class

Last vacation: Spending time in my home in Naples, Fla.

Best book read recently: A Thousand Splendid Suns, by Khaled Hosseini

If I weren't a CIO, I'd be ... a strategy consultant.