CLEVELAND, December 1, 2008 — The 2008 CIO of the Year Awards were presented on November 20, 2008 by the Northeast Ohio Software Association (NEOSA), the Council of Smaller Enterprises’ (COSE) technology network.
CIOs were recognized in four categories: non-profit organization, small company, mid-market company and large company. Finalists CIOs include non-profit CIO Joe Smucny of Cuyahoga Community College (Cleveland), small company CIO Mark Mace of Rhein Chemie (Chardon), mid-market CIO Dale Phillips of MCPc (Highland Hills) and large company CIO Chris O’Neil of FedEx Custom Critical (Akron).
Winning CIOs are Sasi Pillay of NASA (Cleveland) for the non-profit category, Sandra Rapp of OEConnection (Richfield) for the small company category, George Mehok of Revol Wireless (Independence) for the mid-market company category, and Jon Elsasser of Timken (Canton) for the large company category. In addition, each winning CIO’s team was recognized as the NEOSA IT Team of the Year.
A total of nineteen nominations were received by NEOSA. Finalists and winners were selected by a committee of judges based on their answers to a series of questions on issues such as strategic objectives, use of creativity and emerging technology, significant achievements by the company’s IT team, short term and long term objectives, and community relations efforts with respect to IT.
“Our finalists and winners this year represent another outstanding group of IT executives in Northeast Ohio,” said Brad Nellis, director of NEOSA. “The judges’ committee was especially impressed with the use of emerging technologies by the group as well as the significant accomplishments their teams have made.”
Awards were presented at the Ninth Annual NEOSA CIO Symposium. This is the fourth year the awards have been presented.
About COSE
COSE is one of Ohio’s largest small business support organizations, striving to help small businesses grow and maintain their independence. Comprised of more than 17,000 member companies, COSE has a long history of fighting for the rights of all small business owners, whether it’s through group purchasing programs for health care, workers’ compensation, or energy, advocating for specific changes in legislation or regulation to benefit small business, or providing a forum and resource for small businesses to connect with and learn from each other. (www.cose.org)