John Margaronis of the Oregon Lottery
accepts IT Executive of the Year (Public Sector).
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2008 Oregon IT Executives of the Year
April 17, 2008
On April 17, 2008, the Portland Society for Information Management (SIM) presented their annual Oregon IT Executive of the Year Awards in conjunction with the Oregon InnoTech - the region's largest gathering of IT executives, educators & vendors. The InnoTech/SIM awards ceremony was held at the Portland Convention Center, and it was attended by over one hundred area IT professionals. Fred Pond, CIO of the North Pacific Group served as the master of ceremonies of the event.
As the premier network for senior IT executives and thought leaders, SIM recognizes the efforts of Oregon IT executives to innovate and contribute to their organizations. These recipients have demonstrated the implementation of innovative technology, active participation in enhancing his/her organization’s competitive advantage, and leadership in the IT community.
The Oregon InnoTech is a private conference and exhibition built for Business and Technology Executives, guided and directed by local Executives. The intention is to provide the most comprehensive and collaborative Information Technology event for the regions leading executives in a two-day format. InnoTech directed by the region's most distinguished business and technology leaders (who form InnoTech's Advisory Council) and significant technology related organizations.
The primary sponsors of the event were Easystreet, Avanade, MSI Systems Integrators, Time Warner Telecom, and The Software Association of Oregon. Two major awards were presented: the Oregon IT Executive of the Year - Public Sector and the Oregon IT Executive of the Year - Private Sector.
John Margaronis, Chief Information Officer of the Oregon Lottery, named Oregon IT Executive of the Year (Public Sector)
This year's public sector winner started at the Lottery about one and a half years ago. Since his arrival, he has worked with each of Lottery’s departments to gain an understanding of the Lottery’s gaming systems’ and back-office technology. He actively participates in gaming strategy discussions with other organizations and is playing an integral role in the future of gaming technology for the Oregon Lottery. He continues to work with GTECH (the Lottery’s video and online gaming system vendor) to enhance relationships and allow for technology to be introduced that will move the Lottery into a better position in the future. This years winner has assisted in the development and introduction of new concepts and explained the costs and possible impacts of the technology enhancements on the future of the Lottery. He has also taken on a leadership role in bringing an ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) system to the Lottery.
The plan is to have this implemented beginning in FY 09. The implementation of this system will also allow for a single source of truth for the entire Lottery and again reduce the duplication of information.
When he arrived at the Lottery the IT department was in a very reactive mode of operation. He has been working on centralizing the vision and strategy for IT and making sure that the management team is aware of these so that all decisions made are aligned with the direction the agency wants and needs to go. John is also working to implement an Enterprise Architecture which will allow for IT to continue staying aligned with the agency’s vision. Now that the IT management team knows the vision and the direction the agency wants to go, the IT management team is able to make IT decisions on a proactive basis to not only move the agency forward in it uses of technology but also help to reduce future technology problems.
He also worked to enhance IT’s ability to meet Lottery business objectives by identifying the need for an delivery manager to oversee the replacement of many of Lottery’s legacy applications. The replacement of these applications will allow for consistency, efficiency, and the elimination of duplication.
He was instrumental in the creation of a Systems and Network Manager Position to begin work necessary to institute a formal change management process which will allow the organization to track changes and give the employees prior notification of changes that will affect them and their work.
John believes that customer service is a very high priority along with the importance of advancing technology. However, he understands that having the customers understand the importance of the advancements in technology and allowing them to be involved in the process of choosing the technology will allow for a better relationship and partnership throughout the entire agency.
He is also currently the President of the CIO Management Council, a member of the CIO Council, and a member of the PMA Board. He has also been on many other non-IT related boards and volunteered for many organizations.
Jackie Barretta, VP & CIO of Con-way, named Oregon IT Executive of the Year (Private Sector)
As an international transportation and logistics company, Con-way has strategic partnerships around the world. Because of acquisitions completed in 2007, Con-way’s presence and impact grew significantly in the domestic and global arenas. The IT organization under Jackie's leadership needed to be responsive to the rapidly escalating demands created by the acquisitions as well as balancing the normal business demands - this was occurring at the same time as a restructuring and consolidation of the Company’s largest business unit.
Jackie responded with the introduction of Lean Principles into the Con-way IT office environment. Through 2007 the entire IT organization was introduced to the concepts of continuous improvements, reduction of waste, operating effectiveness and focus on customer satisfaction, operating effectiveness, and an improved workplace environment.
In addition, the 2007 Con-way Strategic plan aligned IT strategies to those of the businesses and corporation. Major initiatives in 2007 included linkage of IT governance with strategic planning, instilling a capital management mindset in governance and continuously improving competitiveness of customer facing applications.
Jackie met her goals for 2007 to improve process effectiveness and deliver highest value IT services. These two strategies (out of four major initiatives) addressed the critical success factors of vendor management, world class project management, and infrastructure scalability at the lowest cost.
This was very positive news for both Con-way and Oregon’s IT environment. Jackie's team was given recognition in Information Week as a recipient of the 2007 Information Week 500 Award for Innovation. One of the more interesting aspects of the award was that the technology used was not ‘leading edge’ but the application developed was the product of the creative environment and innovative ideas fostered under her leadership.
Jackie has always engaged her teams on a personal level and has gained their trust - she believes in decisions should be made as close as possible to where the work gets done, and she is not afraid to make those hard choices and executive decisions when required. She is passionate about becoming the employer of choice, the vendor of choice and the #1 Transportation and Logistics company in the industry.
The educational programs at InnoTech are designed to meet the needs of IT Leaders, providing the latest information that companies need to make solid and sound technology decisions. InnoTech presents a wide variety of speaking opportunities across the technology themes that are relevant to the region. By design, the educational programs provide a forum for the exchange of ideas and networking peer-to-peer.
Photos and a summary of Past Awards Events:
