The Heller Report: February Roundup of New C-Suite Tech Appointments

Among this month’s highlights: Delta Air Lines appointed Amala Duggirala, most recently executive vice president and CIO at financial services company USAA, as chief digital and technology officer; software maker Adobe named Lucius DiPhillips, the former CIO at Airbnb, to be its new CIO. Meanwhile, Airbnb tapped Ahmad Al-Dahle, Meta’s former vice president and head of generative AI, as CTO; and NCR Atleos, a provider of self-service financial solutions for ATM networks and other venues, announces Rohan Pal, the former chief transformation officer at ServiceNow, as CIO.

CIOs who can help their companies take advantage of AI will be in high demand this year, CIO.com reported in an article that highlights the expertise of Heller’s Managing Director Kelly Doyle. “If you have data in order and it's producing value, that’s great. But if not, you need the right CIO to enable it,” Doyle told the publication. “Right now, we’re seeing companies actively looking for transformative CIOs, who will help companies from having lots of data to having lots of value. We expect that to continue in 2026.”

Heller has promoted Tim Hobson to senior principal. Hobson, who has more than a decade of executive search experience, joined Heller in 2023  to work with health care technology providers, private equity and private equity-backed portfolio companies, and others to recruit chief product officers, CIOs, CTOs, directors of product and engineering and other senior technology positions. “Tim’s proven track record of both recognizing the changing needs of product platforms and identifying executives who can immediately catalyze growth has been vital,” said Heller CEO Martha Heller in announcing the promotion.

Heller was recently retained by Black & Veatch to recruit a Senior Director, Digital IT & Employee Experience. Black & Veatch is a 100-percent employee-owned global engineering, procurement, consulting, and construction company with a more than 100-year track record of innovation in sustainable infrastructure. For this role, we identified David Williams, who most recently served as Technical Director, IT and Employee Experience for Jack Henry & Associates. Williams holds a B.S. from Kansas State University. Congratulations, David!