Chief information officer
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The chief information officer or CIO is a job title for the head of information technology group within an organization. They often report to the chief executive officer or chief financial officer. In military organizations, they report to the commanding officer or commanding general of the organization.
The prominence of this position has risen greatly as information technology has become a more important part of business. The CIO may be a member of the "executive board" of the organization, but this is dependent on the type of organization.
No specific qualification is typical of CIOs in general; every CIO position has its own specific job description. In the past, many had degrees in computer science, software engineering, or information systems, but this is by no means universal. Many were technical staff. More recently CIOs' leadership capabilities, business acumen and strategic perspectives have taken precedence over technical skills. It is now quite common for CIOs to be appointed from the business side of the organization.
CIO is sometimes facetiously ascribed the backronym of "career is over" - with the CIO role as the pinnacle and hence the dead end of the technical career. It is very rare for a CIO to make the transition to CEO. [citation needed]
The CIO role has in some cases been expanded to become the chief knowledge officer, CKO, who deals in knowledge, not just information.
