Ron Blitstein
IT consulting and advisory firm Cutter Consortium announced today the appointment of Ronald B. Blitstein as the new director of its CIO Practice.
Ron Blitstein is a seasoned CIO. His 30-year career includes extensive international operations experience and spans all aspects of information management. This includes technology strategic planning, program management, mergers and acquisitions, IT turnarounds, business process reengineering, software solutions development, ERP deployment, security/risk management, outsourcing negotiation, and network/operations management.
Ron has been a Senior Consultant with Cutter Consortium and a Fellow of its Business Technology Council since 2007. In his new role, Ron will set the direction for Cutter's CIO practice, which includes research, consulting, and training services around business-IT strategy and trends, enterprise risk management, security, sourcing, and innovation. He will lead the community of Senior Consultants focused in these areas and will lay out the research agenda in these domains.
As a senior technology executive, Ron has been a hands-on change agent working in companies across multiple industries including office products, chemicals, medical systems and pharmaceuticals, and consumer products. He has held leadership positions at Xerox Corporation, Ohmeda, BOC Group, Pitney Bowes, and Revlon in addition to providing consulting services at several Fortune 500 companies as Managing Director of IMprove Technology Advisors. Ron's operating roles included direct leadership of global organizations based in the United States, United Kingdom and Germany, South Africa, Australia, Japan, China, Singapore, and India as well as support to business units operating in over 60 countries.
"Ron is the ideal person to lead this practice," said Karen Fine Coburn, President and CEO of Cutter Consortium. "More than anyone, Ron understands not only the technology and strategy challenges top IT executives face but also the history of how those challenges have emerged and how they've shaped the way IT is managed. He appreciates the pressure CIOs work under and understands the dynamics that play out among executive teams. Ron recognizes all the nuances of sitting in the CIO's seat. I can think of no one more qualified to lead our global team of seasoned Senior Consultants and provide the best support possible for top IT and business executives."
Says Blitstein, "Moving into this new role at Cutter will make it possible for me to devote 100% of my attention to helping organizations fine-tune their business-technology strategies. Even though IT management has many dimensions and is constantly evolving, there are certain themes that prevail and recur independent of technology. The reality is that technology in isolation has never created strategic value. I am thrilled to be in a position to help other CIOs bridge the essential links between mission, processes, organization structures, technologies, skills, and people."
Accordingly, a centerpiece of Ron's experience has been improving operational excellence, project delivery, and governance as well as creating new sources of innovation and modes of collaboration. He is acutely aware that success starts with having the right people, with the right skills, and the right values. Blitstein observed, "Without these critical ingredients, IT's ability to deliver business strategies, objectives, and results becomes a fool's errand. To bring value to business stakeholders, IT must have the right governance, the right expertise, as well as effective processes and organizational structures or else project delivery and service levels will fail to meet expectations." Ron will infuse this perspective into Cutter's consulting and training services and they will be cornerstones of the research agenda for the CIO practice.
To interview Mr. Blitstein, or for more information on Cutter's CIO Practice, contact Kim Leonard at press@cutter.com or 1-781-648-8700.