New Breed of Information Officers to Provide Competitive Advantage and Ensure Compliance in the Age

Executive search firms are now being asked to recruit a new breed of information officers to assist corporations address Sarbanes-Oxley compliance requirements and to compete more effectively overall in the age of Sarbanes-Oxley. Passed in response to major corporate scandals, The Sarbanes-Oxley act also known as Public Company Accounting Reform and Investor Protection Act of 2002 has redefined the role of the company CIO. Many of the most progressive corporations have successfully embraced the evolution of the Chief Information Officer function from being narrowly focused on the day-to-day maintenance and support of a company's information systems organization to a much broader leadership and management role on the company's senior management team. Executive search firm Venerable Partners says that these forward thinking corporations have empowered their CIOs to become vital business partners in designing and executing the business strategy for their respective organizations. Chief Executives who have

suported this evolution have undoubtedly experienced greater operational efficiencies, improved resource utilization, and better returns on their technology investments.

According to Donald Law, Managing Director of Chicago based executive search firm Venerable Partners , "as a byproduct of this evolution, Chief Information Officers have now become intimately involved in all of the critical business processes that drive their companies. From supply chain management to production systems, from customer fulfillment to billing systems, from human resource management systems to compliance tracking, a corporation's information systems organization has become inextricably linked to all significant business processes within their company."

It is critical for Chief Executives to appreciate the significance of this linkage between an entity's information systems organization and the critical business processes and safeguards required for Sarbanes-Oxley compliance. According to executive search firm Venerable Partners, "because it is not practical for Chief Executives to understand the granular technical details of the technology solutions that support an organization's business processes, the relationship between the CEO and his/her CIO has to be stronger than ever. As an executive search firm who partners with senior management, we have seen that CEOs are now coming to expect that their CIOs become the guarantors of the business processes implemented within their organizations." However, in order to allow one's CIO to become the guarantor of one's organizational business processes, CEOs must recognize that they must now provide for a level of transparency that their CIOs may not have been privileged to in the past. Such open communication is

critical to an organization's ability to consistently satisfy the Sarbanes-Oxley requirements and mitigate unforeseen exposure to essential business processes.

As Chief Executives go about assessing the leadership strengths of their information officers and go about identifying senior information systems executives who present the capacities to truly become the guarantors of one's business processes, executive search firm Venerable Partners recommends that CEOs (and their respective selection committees) work to identify information systems executives who present the following essential qualifications:

1. Exceptionally strong general business acumen along with an astute level of understanding of all critical business functions and their underlying processes.

2. Business process management skills, including an understanding of best practice process documentation procedures.

3. Demonstrated success serving as a key business partner across all major functional disciplines in delivering a comprehensive suite of information technology solutions designed to advance the needs of the business.

4. Prior exposure to Sarbanes-Oxley reporting and compliance requirements.

5. The interpersonal and leadership skills required to establish a trusted advisor relationship with the CEO.

6. Demonstrated experience as a senior leader of an information systems organization, including a thorough understanding of the enabling infrastructure, operations and applications solutions that underlie a world-class information systems organization.

7. Familiarity with the emerging information technologies that are impacting one's particular industrial sector and driving the major architectural, econometric and customer-focused solutions.

Executive search firm Venerable Partners states that these are only general guidelines intended to provide a basis from which to begin an assessment of one's leadership strengths within the office of the information officer. A company's specific business challenges and external market forces will also dictate the ideal profile best suited to address an organization's specific needs.

Donald Law of executive search firm Venerable Partners comments that "each client situation is unique" and that corporations should first engage one of the leading executive search firms to provide a comprehensive assessment of the leadership strengths and weakness within the office of the information officer prior to making any decisions regarding one's personnel. By partnering with an executive search firm like Venerable Partners to provide this type of assessment, Law maintains that corporations will better mitigate compliance related risks and also help ensure that adequate succession planning initiatives are also in place within a corporation's IT organization.

Donald Law of Venerable Partners maintains that executive search firms can provide a truly objective assessment and provide valuable recommendations.