Todd Kackley
VP & CIO
Textron
Todd Kackley is Vice President and Chief Information Officer for Textron Inc., a $12.9 billion, multi-industry company employing 34,000 talented makers, thinkers, creators and doers worldwide. In this role, he leads the business unit chief information officers and the Textron Information Services (TIS) organization. He oversees Textron's Information Management Council and manages Textron's information technology supplier and outsourcing relationships.
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Give us a brief overview of the path that led to your current role.
Prior to my current role, I was executive vice president and chief information officer for Bell where I developed and executed IT and digital strategy, aligning business systems, infrastructure, cybersecurity and development capabilities to the needs of the business.
I joined Textron in 2008 and held various positions of increasing responsibility within IT at Textron Corporate, Bell and Textron Systems, where I was named vice president and CIO in 2015. Before joining Textron, I held various leadership positions focusing on IT strategy and enterprise system implementations within the United States and internationally.
What is one of your guiding leadership principles?
Listening for intent and understanding all sides of a discussion or debate are critical to finding common ground and solving for the right 'X' in a problem statement. Good leaders surround themselves with knowledge experts that represent a wide variety of diverse thoughts and backgrounds.
With disruption being a key theme of recent years, where do you see the CIO role going in the next 1-2 years?
The C-level role has significantly shifted to becoming more of a strategic contributor to the growth and execution of a business. As emerging technologies like generative AI start to become more mainstream across organizations, the C-level roles around information technology, data security and data governance will continue to overlap and have a more dramatic impact on the success (or failure) of a business.
What advice would you give to someone just starting out as a CIO?
Build your network across all levels of the organization, not just managing upwards. It is easier to align on decisions and direction when time has been taken to have offline discussions with key stakeholders, building the confidence to gain the trust necessary to execute your strategy.
Tell us a few fun facts about yourself.
I am fluent in Spanish and have lived/worked in Venezuela and Colombia. I am also a 2-time cancer survivor and volunteer as a Board Member on American Cancer Society’s CEOs Against Cancer North Texas Chapter.
What is the value of joining an Evanta community?
I've been a part of the Evanta community since 2014 and have benefited from the connections made with other information technology leaders. The opportunity to participate in discussions on emerging technologies or trends across multiple industries provides an interesting perspective and insight that shapes my strategic thinking and perspective as a technology leader.
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