VELL BLOG

January 30th, 2020

Welcome to the 66th Edition of the Open Tech Roles newsletter. This newsletter covers open technology roles as of January 27th, 2020 and technology appointments for past 52 days ending January 27th, 2020.

Titles for Technology Officers have been evolving and multiplying

• Heads of IT and Digital Organizations: they usually have titles, such as CIOs, CTOs or Chief Digital Officers (or combinations of these titles)
• Head of Tech Vendor Tech organizations: CTOs and/or SVP, Engineering.Occasionally, the Chief Product Officer title is a CTO and Product role.
• Other tech roles at the executive level: Information Security Officers, Chief Data / Analytics Officers, and many others.

January 19th, 2020

Happy New Year and welcome to our Annual Technology CFO Newsletter, summarizing the 2019 appointments and open roles as of the end of the year.

We are now working on trends for 2019 Board changes in tech companies.

Summary Trends

There are currently 36 Open Tech CFO Roles in US & Canada after all the shuffles last year. There have been 231 CFO appointments in the technology domain in US & Canada in 2019.

December 16, 2019

Happy Holidays!

Welcome to our Technology CEO Transitions Newsletter for November-December 2019.

We research and catalog all open technology CEO roles we can find (as of 12/15) and also the latest appointments for October 30th - December 15th. We use Capital IQ industry classifications and US census geographic regions.

Summary Trends

There are 55 Open Tech CEO Roles and 67 Appointments.

Here is their geographic distribution:

December 8th, 2019

Welcome to the 65th Edition of the Open Tech Roles newsletter. This newsletter covers open technology roles as of December 6th, 2019 and technology appointments for past 71 days ending December 6th, 2019.

Titles are evolving and are specializing:

• The head of technology (IT) role has different titles, historically a CIO, is now either CIO, CTO or Engineering (including CIO role) and a Chief Digital Officer titles (or combinations thereof). Note: sometimes the head of IT is the EVP Tech & Ops with CIO type roots.
• The CTO role has multiple contexts and meanings: (1) CTOs that manage IT (where the CIO reports in); (2) CTOs that manage the tech infrastructure (a more traditional definition); (3) CTOs - Products/ Tech Strategy. They are essentially tech vendor CTOs and typically manage IT as well, but it is not their primary role or orientation.

November 4, 2019

Welcome to our Technology CEO Transitions Newsletter for September-October 2019.

We research and catalog all open technology CEO roles we can find (as of 10/29) and also the latest appointments for August 31st – October 29th. We use Capital IQ industry classifications and US census geographic regions.

Summary Trends

There are 49 Open Tech CEO Roles and 63 Appointments.

Here is their geographic distribution:

September 27th, 2019

Welcome to the 64th Edition of the Open Tech Roles newsletter. This newsletter covers open technology roles as of September 26th, 2019 and technology appointments for past 69 days ending September 26th, 2019.

Titles are evolving and are specializing:

• The head of technology (IT) role has different titles, historically a CIO, is now either CIO, CTO or Engineering (including CIO role) and a Chief Digital Officer titles (or combinations thereof). Note: sometimes the head of IT is the EVP Tech & Ops with CIO type roots.
• The CTO role has multiple contexts and meanings: (1) CTOs that manage IT (where the CIO reports in); (2) CTOs that manage the tech infrastructure (a more traditional definition); (3) CTOs - Products/ Tech Strategy. They are essentially tech vendor CTOs and typically manage IT as well, but it is not their primary role or orientation.

September 6, 2019

Welcome to our Technology CEO Transitions Newsletter for July-August 2019.

We research and catalog all open technology CEO roles we can find (as of 8/30) and also the latest appointments for July 26th - August 30th. We use Capital IQ industry classifications and US census geographic regions.

Summary Trends

There are 24 Open Tech CEO Roles and 37 Appointments.

Here is their geographic distribution:

August 1st, 2019

Welcome to the 63rd Edition of the Open Tech Roles newsletter. This newsletter covers open technology roles as of July 22nd, 2019 and technology appointments for past 62 days ending July 22nd, 2019.

Titles are evolving and are specializing:

• The head of technology (IT) role has different titles, historically a CIO, is now either CIO, CTO or Engineering (including CIO role) and a Chief Digital Officer titles (or combinations thereof). Note: sometimes the head of IT is the EVP Tech & Ops with CIO type roots.
• The CTO role has multiple contexts and meanings: (1) CTOs that manage IT (where the CIO reports in); (2) CTOs that manage the tech infrastructure (a more traditional definition); (3) CTOs - Products/ Tech Strategy. They are essentially tech vendor CTOs and typically manage IT as well, but it is not their primary role or orientation.
• At Charter Communications the Chief Product Officer is adding Technology Officer to his title to oversee Engineering and IT along with Product Team. We have seen some of this trend recently in our Vell practice as well.

July 26, 2019

Welcome to our Technology CEO Transitions Newsletter for June-July 2019.

We research and catalog all open technology CEO roles we can find (as of 7/25) and also the latest appointments for the period starting on June 11th and ending July 25th. We use Capital IQ industry classifications and US census geographic regions.

Summary Trends

There are 24 Open Tech CEO Roles and 31 Appointments.

Here is their geographic distribution:

June 13, 2019

Welcome to our Technology CEO Transitions Newsletter for May-June 2019.

We research and catalog all open technology CEO roles we can find (as of 6/10) and also the latest appointments for May 3rd to June 10th. We use Capital IQ industry classifications and US census geographic regions.

Summary Trends

There are 25 Open Tech CEO Roles and 27 Appointments. The activity seems to have slowed down significantly, also noticed in trends from April/May.

Here is their geographic distribution:

We would LOVE to hear from you… Please click on the link below… The survey is completely anonymous…We will publish a summary of the results.

Take CIO/Tech Exec Retention Survey Here

May 22nd, 2019

Welcome to the 62nd Edition of the Open Tech Roles newsletter. This newsletter covers open technology roles as of May 20th, 2019 and technology appointments for past 38 days ending May 20th, 2019.

                                                     We need your opinion!

                                                     CIO/ tech exec retention survey

We received some email responses last month on reasons for CIO/ tech exec departures, and what boards/CEOs should know about effective retention methods.

Please consider all responses confidential (i.e. will be anonymized and summarized)

May 8, 2019

Welcome to our Technology CEO Transitions Newsletter for April/May 2019.

We research and catalog all open technology CEO roles we can find (as of 5/2) and also the latest appointments for March 18th to May 2nd. We use Capital IQ industry classifications and US census geographic regions.

Summary Trends

There are 27 Open Tech CEO Roles and 29 Appointments. The activity seems to have slowed down significantly, also noticed in trends from March.

Here is their geographic distribution:

April 22nd, 2019

Hope you had a wonderful long weekend!

Welcome to the 61st Edition of the Open Tech Roles newsletter. This newsletter covers open technology roles as of April 12th, 2019 and technology appointments for past 31 days ending April 12th, 2019.

We want your opinion...

Reasons for CIO/Tech departures & effective retention methods

Would love your commentary on the following questions...

(1) What are the reasons CIOs/other heads of technology leave companies?

(2) What are some of the challenges that CIOs/other tech execs face that their CEOs should keep in mind? 

(3) What are some best practices organizations should follow in order to keep their CIOs / other tech execs on board?

Email your thoughts to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. We will summarize and share the responses.

March 20th, 2019

Welcome to our Technology CEO Transitions Newsletter for March 2019.

We research and catalog all open technology CEO roles we can find (as of 3/17) and also the latest appointments for February 18th to March 17th. We use Capital IQ industry classifications and US census geographic regions.

Summary Trends

There are 31 Open Tech CEO Roles and 26 Appointments. The activity seems to have slowed down significantly.

Here is their geographic distribution:

March 15th, 2019

Welcome to the 60th Edition of the Open Tech Roles newsletter. This newsletter covers open technology roles as of March 10th, 2019 and technology appointments for past 28 days ending March 10th, 2019.

Titles are evolving and are specializing:

• The head of technology (IT) role has different titles, historically a CIO, is now either CIO, CTO or Engineering (including CIO role) and a Chief Digital Officer titles (or combinations thereof). Note: sometimes the head of IT is the EVP Tech & Ops with CIO type roots.
• The CTO role has multiple contexts and meanings: (1) CTOs that manage IT (where the CIO reports in); (2) CTOs that manage the tech infrastructure (a more traditional definition); (3) CTOs - Products/ Tech Strategy. They are essentially tech vendor CTOs and typically manage IT as well, but it is not their primary role or orientation.
• More exec titles in Tech: Data Science, Data Protection, CISOs, Chief Data Officers

February 20th, 2019

Welcome to our Technology CEO Transitions Newsletter for February 2019.

We research and catalog all open technology CEO roles we can find (as of 2/17) and also the latest appointments for January 20th to February 17th. We use Capital IQ industry classifications and US census geographic regions.

Summary Trends

There are 28 Open Tech CEO Roles and 42 Appointments.

Here is their geographic distribution:

February 20th, 2019

Welcome to the 59th Edition of the Open Tech Roles newsletter. We have been tracking open technology roles and latest appointments, but have not published it as we have been looking at the breadth of technology executive roles. This newsletter covers open technology roles as of February 11th, 2019 and technology appointments for past 37 days ending February 11th, 2019.

Titles are evolving and are specializing:

• The head of technology (IT) role has different titles, historically a CIO, is now either CIO, CTO or Engineering (including CIO role) and a Chief Digital Officer titles (or combinations thereof). Note: sometimes the head of IT is the EVP Tech & Ops with CIO type roots.
• The CTO role has multiple contexts and meanings: (1) CTOs that manage IT (where the CIO reports in); (2) CTOs that manage the tech infrastructure (a more traditional definition); (3) CTOs - Products/ Tech Strategy. They are essentially tech vendor CTOs and typically manage IT as well, but it is not their primary role or orientation.
• More exec titles in Tech: Data Science, Data Protection, CISOs, Chief Data Officers

January 21st, 2019

Welcome to our first Technology CEO Transitions Newsletter for 2019.

We research and catalog all open technology CEO roles we can find (as of 1/19) and also the latest appointments for December 1st to January 19th. We use Capital IQ industry classifications and US census geographic regions.

Summary Trends

There are 30 Open Tech CEO Roles and 55 Appointments.

January 7, 2019

Happy New Year!

Welcome to the 58th Edition of the Open Tech Roles newsletter. We have been tracking open technology roles and latest appointments, but have not published it as we have been looking at the breadth of technology executive roles. This newsletter only covers open technology roles as of  January 4th, 2018.

Titles are evolving and are specializing:

• The head of technology (IT) role has different titles, historically a CIO, is now either CIO, CTO (including CIO role) and a Chief Digital Officer titles (or combinations thereof). Note: sometimes the head of IT is the EVP Tech & Ops with CIO type roots.
• The CTO role has multiple contexts and meanings: (1) CTOs that manage IT (where the CIO reports in); (2) CTOs that manage the tech infrastructure (a more traditional definition); (3) CTOs - Products/ Tech Strategy. They are essentially tech vendor CTOs and typically manage IT as well, but it is not their primary role or orientation.
• More exec titles in Tech: Data Science, Data Protection, CISOs, Chief Data Officers