Mark Smith
CTO
Hauser & Wirth
Mark Smith is the CTO for Hauser & Wirth. He has 25 years of experience as a tech leader, having worked in many business segments from High Fashion, Music Industry, Fine Arts and many more. A fun or “not so fun fact” that Mark shared about himself is that he spends an astounding amount of time trying to keep his rescue dog from taking down the neighborhood deer population on any given day.
Learn more about the New York CIO community here.
Give us a brief overview of the path that led to your current role.
My career began in the dotcom boom in the late 90s. I’m a proud member of the tech gray beard community, and have held just about all positions one can have in tech. From infrastructure to app dev to 20 years in leadership roles for midsize organizations.
What is one of your guiding leadership principles?
Servant leadership. A CIO/CTO should lead their team from the front and clear a path for their rockstars to do what they do best.
What is the greatest challenge technology leaders face today, and how are you addressing it?
Security is always a top concern. Developing apps and infrastructure that serve internal business units and clients while balancing security remains a top concern, and likely will for the next 3-5 years.
What is the key to success for someone just starting out as a CIO?
Learn your business first. As tech leaders, we can be disengaged from the business, and that can become a barrier to success when starting out in a C-level role. Become a champion of tech led initiatives by learning the key areas for growth and change.
How do you measure success as a leader?
Measuring success in the C-suite can be a tough read. As a member of senior leadership, you have moved past the point in your career where you need guidance, so the best way I've found to measure success is to look at your organization's objectives. Are you meeting those as a tech leader? Have you delivered on your roadmap at the pace you set out? Are you staying within your budget? If you can answer yes to these questions, you are likely delivering value to your organization.
What is the value of being a member of the Evanta community?
The value that Evanta provides is impossible to measure. As tech leaders, we can often be stuck in a bubble working alongside non tech colleagues. The ability to discuss challenges and problem solving with similar minds is a tremendous value! At the end of the day, we are all trying to solve many of the same problems for our organizations, and sharing ideas with other tech leaders is very worth devoting some of our hard-to-come-by time.
Evanta Governing Body members share their insights and leadership perspectives to shape the agendas and topics that address the top priorities impacting business leaders today.
by CIOs, for CIOs
Join the conversation with peers in your local CIO community.