Business: Executives

Philadelphia CIO Leadership Association Announces Recipients of 2019 CIO of the Year ORBIE Awards

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PHILADELPHIA (PRWEB)

The Philadelphia CIO Leadership Association (PhillyCIO) announced the winners of its 2019 CIO of the Year® ORBIE® Awards. PhillyCIO recognized chief information officers in six key categories – Leadership, Global, Large Enterprise, Enterprise, Corporate and Healthcare. The Awards were presented at the Philadelphia CIO of the Year Awards at the Philadelphia Marriott Downtown.

“Today’s recognition of these CIO Executives’ ability to innovate and lead their organizations is the cornerstone of the Philadelphia CIO Leadership Association’s vision of developing transformative technology leaders who deliver business outcomes that impact their organizations, their industries and our world,” said Melissa Sawyer, Executive Director of PhillyCIO. “Being selected by their peers is testament to the innovation, leadership and perseverance these individuals have mastered in earning this prestigious recognition.”

The 2019 Philadelphia CIO of the Year ORBIE Award winners are:

  • Michael Golz, CIO, SAP America Inc., received the Leadership CIO of the Year ORBIE.

  • Usman Waheed, CIO & CTO, Knoll, received the Global ORBIE, for organizations over $1 billion annual revenue & multi-national

  • Greg Driscoll, SVP & CIO, Penn Mutual Life Insurance Company, received the Large Enterprise ORBIE, for organizations over $1 billion annual revenue.

  • Robert Thielmann, CIO, Janney Montgomery Scott LLC, received the Enterprise ORBIE, for organizations over $500 million annual revenue.

  • Kevin Switala, CTO, Gannett Fleming, Inc., received the Corporate ORBIE, for organizations up to $500 million annual revenue.

  • Tom Gordon, SVP & CIO, Virtua Health, received the Healthcare ORBIE, for hospitals & healthcare organizations.


The CIO of the Year ORBIE Awards is the premier technology executive recognition program in the United States. Since inception in 1998, over 800 CIOs have been honored as finalists and over 200 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

  • Size and scope of responsibilities

  • Engagement in industry and community endeavors


The CIO Awards ceremony was keynoted by Becky Blalock, Former SVP & CIO of Southern Company. Nearly 600 guests attended, representing leading Philadelphia organizations and their technology partners.

The 2019 Philadelphia CIO of the Year Awards was made possible by the following sponsors:

  • Underwriters: CenturyLink

  • Gold sponsors: Red Hat, Insight, Deloitte & Aryaka

  • Silver sponsors: Zerto, Flexential, Zscaler, Appian, Splunk, Pure Storage, Cognizant, SecureAuth, Navigate, Brooksource & K1 Consulting

  • Bronze sponsors: Frontier Technologies, Interra Consulting, Psiog, firstPRO, Integress, ConvergeOne, High Availability, Advanced Micro Computer Specialists, Core BTS, Venetia Partners, e4 Services, Engine Room Technology, Comcast Business, Crystal Technologies, Cerner, InspiraHealth, Box & Between Pixels

  • National partner: Year Up

  • Media partner: The Philadelphia Business Journal


About the Philadelphia CIO Leadership Association

The Philadelphia CIO Leadership Association (PhillyCIO) is the preeminent professional association for Philadelphia chief information officers. Our membership is comprised exclusively of CIOs (or equivalent executive roles) from public and private companies, government, education, healthcare and nonprofit organizations.

PhillyCIO is led by a CIO Advisory Board which sets the annual program agenda for the association. Events are facilitated by a full-time Executive Director and professional staff. PhillyCIO events are CIO-led and attended solely by CIO-level executives.

Achieve your leadership potential through PhillyCIO: http://www.phillycio.org.

Stay connected with PhillyCIO: http://linkedin.com/company/phillycio.

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