Who would want the Target CIO job? Current CIO resigns amid breaches

Target’s data breach is infamous, and now the CIO has resigned.

Target CIO resigns amid breach investigations

  • Article by: JENNIFER BJORHUS , Star Tribune 
  • Updated: March 5, 2014 - 12:16 PM

Target shakes up its information technology management following last year’s theft of customer data.

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Beth Jacob, Target vice president and chief information officer, resigned in the wake of the data breach that jeopardized the financial and personal information of tens of millions of customers. The company announced Jacob's departure Wednesday. 2013 file photo.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One of my good friends just said he was going to make a job change and they want him because of his skills in data centers and software.

What caught my eye is the exiting Target CIO is an MBA who started out as an buyer.

Jacob, who holds an M.B.A. from the University of Minnesota, first joined the company in 1984 as a department store assistant buyer when it was known as Dayton’s, then left and returned in 2002 to Target as director of guest contact centers. She was promoted to CIO and executive vice president of Target Technology Services in 2008, and reported to Steinhafel.

Jacob ran Target’s technology infrastructure during a period of rapid change, including the relocation of some of its technology operations to India. Critics have noted that she has deep operations experience but lacked the information technology background that many see as increasingly important for a CIO at a major corporation.

Being CIO is really hard, and seems even harder if you don’t have an information technology type of degree.

I wonder if the new Target CIO will be more technical?