Winners of 2021 TwinCitiesCIO ORBIE Awards Announced

The following is a press release from TwinCitiesCIO

TwinCitiesCIO announced the winners of its 2021 CIO of the Year® ORBIE® Awards. TwinCitiesCIO recognized chief information officers in nine key categories – Leadership, Super Global, Global, Large Enterprise, Enterprise, Large Corporate, Corporate, Nonprofit/Public Sector, & Education. The TwinCitiesCIO ORBIE Awards were presented virtually.

“The TwinCitiesCIO ORBIE winners demonstrate the significance of strong technology leadership in these uncertain times. Over the past year, CIOs are leading in unprecedented ways and enabling the largest work-from-home experiment in history,” according to Christa Ogilvy, Executive Director of TwinCitiesCIO. “The ORBIE Awards are meaningful because they are judged by peers - CIOs who understand how difficult this job is and why great leadership matters.”

The 2021 TwinCitiesCIO ORBIE Award winners are:

• Alan Abramson, CIO (ret), HealthPartners received the Leadership CIO of the Year ORBIE.
• Robin Brown, CIO, Protein North America, Cargill received the Super Global ORBIE for organizations over $2 billion annual revenue & multi-national operations.
• John Pelant, EVP & CTO, CWT received the Global ORBIE for organizations up to $2 billion annual revenue & multi-national operations.
• Mike McNamara, EVP & CIO, Target received the Large Enterprise ORBIE for organizations over $3.5 billion annual revenue.
• Mike McGuire, Chief Operations & CTO, Delta Dental of MN, President, Abōva Technologies received the Enterprise ORBIE, for organizations Over $500 million annual revenue.
• Jamie Thingelstad, SVP & CTO, SPS Commerce received the Large Corporate ORBIE for organizations up to $500 million annual revenue.
• Dan Ritch, SVP & CIO, NorthMarq received the Corporate ORBIE for organizations up to $300 million annual revenue.
• Sharon Kennedy Vickers, CIO, City of Saint Paul received the Nonprofit/Public Sector ORBIE for government, healthcare, and nonprofit organizations.
• Rahoul Ghose, CIO, ECMC Group received the Education ORBIE for Schools and other higher education organizations.

The CIO of the Year ORBIE Awards is the premier technology executive recognition program in the United States. Since inception in 1998, over 1,800 CIOs have been honored as finalists and over 400 CIO of the Year winners have received the prestigious ORBIE Award. The ORBIE honors chief information officers who have demonstrated excellence in technology leadership. Finalists and winners are selected by an independent peer review process, led by prior ORBIE recipients, based upon:

• Leadership and management effectiveness
• Business value created by technology innovation
• Engagement in industry and community endeavors

The TwinCitiesCIO ORBIE Awards keynote was delivered by Becky Blalock, former Fortune 500 CIO, New York Times Best Selling author, consultant, and board member to several organizations. Over 250 guests attended virtually, representing leading Minneapolis/St. Paul organizations and their technology partners.

TwinCitiesCIO is the preeminent peer leadership network of Minneapolis/St. Paul chief information officers. TwinCitiesCIO is one of 21 chapters of the InspireCIO Leadership Network, a national membership organization comprised exclusively of CIOs from public and private businesses, government, education, healthcare and nonprofit institutions.

TwinCitiesCIO is led by a CIO Advisory Board, supported by an executive director and staff. Underwriter executives ensure programs remain non-commercial and exclusive to qualified CIOs and members.