BRM Institute Executive Council Established
It is my great pleasure to announce the formation of the BRM Institute Executive Council. The BRM Institute Executive Council is an advisory team consisting of past or present C-level business executives from leading organizations around the globe, who have a proven expertise in implementing and maximizing the Business Relationship Management capability, share a passion, and possess a vision to further advance the BRM discipline. The purpose of the BRM Institute Executive Council is three-fold:
- Provide executive thought leadership through real world experience in implementing and maximizing the BRM capabilities to assist the Institute in shaping the BRM discipline, advancing the BRM profession, and improving its practices globally.
- Be the world’s leading Executive Council dedicated to actively improving the organizations around the globe by ensuring effective BRM capability definition, implementation, and business value maximization.
- Provide recognition for the members of this Council as industry thought leaders in the BRM space.
It is my privilege to assume the responsibilities of the Chair of the Executive Council. I bring more than two decades of experience in the Information Technology industry, including 15+ years with the world’s number two software company. I have extensive organizational expertise having worked in sales, alliances, development, support, training, and hosted cloud services. I specialize in strategic business planning and execution of complex and business critical initiatives. As an IT Business Relationship Manager (BRM), I established myself as a trusted advisor working with multiple billion dollar P/L business partners to achieve their business and technology objectives. My efforts directly contribute to increased revenue, adoption of new services, and operational efficiencies. I recently completed a Masters in Business Administration degree and hold ITIL Expert (V2) service management certification. I am very passionate about advancing the BRM profession and coaching BRMs.
As the Chair of the Executive Council, I collaborate with business partnership veterans and visionaries for the purpose of both cultivating and harvesting their best practices in order to share with BRMs and executives around the globe. I am delighted to introduce Al Kuebler and Joe Topinka, two such veterans and visionaries, who have graciously accepted my invitation to join the Council as its Vice Chairs.
Al Kuebler was senior vice president and chief information officer (CIO) for the McGraw-Hill Companies, Alcatel-Lucent, AT&T Universal Card Services, and Los Angeles County. Al is the author of 46 articles for the CIO Magazine, Computerworld, Forbes, Reuters and other leading IT management publications and the Amazon bestselling book Technical Impact: Making your Information Technology Effective, and Keeping It That Way. Al is a pioneer in implementing BRM programs for joint business-IT collaboration to improve business and strategic performance through more effective use of the strategic engine of the enterprise, the IT function, as the truly powerful and exciting resource it is.Al has received eleven industry awards for IT innovation in customer service and as part of the executive team at AT&T he was also awarded the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award presented by the Secretary of Commerce, National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the President of the United States. Al is the founder and principal of Technical Impact. I welcome Al’s wisdom and experience as an accomplished leader and implementer of the Business Relationship Management organizational capability!
Joe Topinka is a dynamic speaker, coach, author, and career CIO. He has over 35 years of success leading IT organizations and driving meaningful business results in the process. His game-changing IT Business Partner Program has bridged the chasm between business stakeholders and IT organizations time and again. Joe is a frequent keynote speaker on this subject where he shares his vision at industry events across the country. Joe is the founder of CIO Mentor, LLC, a consultancy focused on helping companies leverage the power of technology to achieve profit-driven business results. In 2013, Joe was honored as the CIO of the Year by the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal. In his role at CIO Mentor, Joe speaks to industry groups about the power of IT Business Partnerships. His audiences range from members of the C-Suite to IT leaders and CIOs. Joe’s advice is sought after and his program has been featured on the Forbes.com, the Heller Report, Profile Magazine, The Forum on World Class IT, and numerous other publications. Joe is also the author of IT Business Partnerships: A Field Guide. Joe is passionate about moving beyond IT and business alignment to a state of business and technology convergence where the best possible business outcomes are achieved. Joe has seen this close-knit C-Suite and IT relationship produce top-line and bottom-lines results for companies that have implement his methods. Joe’s caring and companionate style signals to leaders that he is truly interested in their success and the success of their company’s. Joe is a seasoned CIO with experience across many industries including banking services and packaged software, brokerage, accounting, manufacturing, and retail. Joe is currently CIO and VP of Multichannel Commerce for Red Wing Shoe Company, where his leadership guides not only the IT organization but the company’s global digital commerce platform as well.Joe has also served as CIO of McGladrey, the 5th largest accounting firm in the U.S. Prior to McGladrey, Joe served as CIO of BNY Clearing, a Bank of New York Company, where he delivered the firm’s first web-based brokerage workstation. Joe began his career with FIS where he managed software products lines that served commercial banks. I am looking forward to working with Joe side-by-side!
For more information, to propose a candidate, or to be considered for nomination to the Council, please email us. Thank you very much for your support!
Sincerely,
Alex Skinner
Chair, BRM Institute Executive Council