TITLE: Senior vice president and CIO
COMPANY: Winterthur US Holdings Inc., Sun Prairie, Wis.
ANNUAL REVENUE: $1.5 billion in premiums
INDUSTRY SECTOR: Insurance
TIME IN JOB: 2.5 years
BEST ADVICE EVER RECEIVED: One doesn't always have to be right. Pick your battles.
FROM WHOM: The CIO at a credit information company.
BEST CIO DECISION EVER MADE: Hiring people who are smarter than I am to fill in my gaps.
BEST CAREER MOVE: I went to a large utility company that allowed me to work as a general manager rather than an IT person.
WORST JOB EVER HAD: Teaching piano to little kids. They didn't want to be there, but their mothers made them come.
IF YOU WEREN'T A CIO, YOU WOULD BE: A lawyer. I'm fascinated by the law, how it works, how it can be used and abused.
FAVORITE GUILTY PLEASURE:Playing FreeCell on my home PC.
BIGGEST CAREER INFLUENCE : My boss when I worked for Dominick's grocery stores. He was excellent at coaching and mentoring me. We operated as colleagues -- not as boss to staff. And yet I never forgot he was my boss.
LAST BUSINESS BOOK YOU READ: Competing in the Information Age, by Jerry Luftman
FAVORITE PASTIME: Outside of work? It's a toss-up between gardening and cooking.
BEST PERSONALITY TRAIT: Extremely inquisitive and curious.
This was first published in June 2005