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

Among this month's highlights: Nationwide appointed Michael Carrel, most recently senior vice president and CTO for the insurance company’s Nationwide Financial unit, to be its new CTO; Jim Fowler, Nationwide’s previous executive vice president and CTO, won the role as chief technology and product officer at Lumens, a global IT services company; coffee giant Starbucks named Anand Varadarajan as its new CTO after most recently leading technology and supply chain work at Amazon’s grocery stores business; and Goodyear, the tire and rubber company, selected as its new CIO Raman Mehta, who joints after leading digital transformation efforts as senior vice president and CIO at Johnson Electric.

Recent security breaches have exposed the fragility of vendor ecosystems and the growing threat posed by attackers exploiting the systems of vendors’ subcontractors, writes Heller Managing Director Jason Henninger in Cyber Defense Magazine. Among the strategies to mitigate this risk, Henninger advises CISOs to implement continuous systems monitoring and real-time risk scoring; mapping vendor dependences; and embedding vendors into incident response playbooks.

Dr. Margaret Cunningham, vice president of security and AI strategy and field CISO at Darktrace, explains how human behavior, trust, and decision-making influence security practices. Drawing on her background in behavioral science, security research, and organizational dynamics, Cunningham argues that understanding how people interpret risk is essential to building resilient systems, accelerating innovation, and maintaining customer confidence.

Heller has been retained to recruit a Vice President, Information Technology for a private equity-backed provider of electrical power solutions and services. Reporting to the Chief Transformation Officer, this leader will define and drive the IT strategy across four business segments, overseeing applications, infrastructure, and cybersecurity. A key responsibility will be prioritizing the IT roadmap to enhance critical business capabilities and deliver measurable value. This VP of IT will lead efforts to reduce and remediate technical debt while fostering a forward-thinking, innovative approach to technology that supports long-term growth. The ideal candidate will have 10-plus years of progressive IT leadership experience, a strong background in industrial manufacturing, and a proven track record to achieve KPIs while clearly articulating and reporting departmental ROI. The role is based outside Austin, Texas.