Improver

Joe Whitney

Vice President Information Technology at Stepan Company

Winnetka, Illinois

I am a dynamic leader with 25 years of IT experience. For the last decade I have architected complex, global IT transformations aimed at:

1. Standardizing and modernizing corporate technology estates.
2. Transforming fragmented, regional IT teams into high-performing, global IT organizations.
3. Minimizing enterprise risk via IT security and data privacy strategies.

I am a leader who creates an atmosphere of high-performance and collaboration with an extreme focus on people. I believe that individuals are more engaged, perform at a higher level, and are generally happier when they are accountable, empowered to act, challenged, and feel that what they do makes a difference. My leadership approach improves employee retention and creates an organization that people want to join.

At Weber, I was the architect and executive champion of the 3-year Global IT Fix the Foundation program. I achieved executive support for a previously unprecedented Weber technology investment. In early 2019 we achieved our goal - standard, modern, and secure infrastructure technology at our 42 global sites.

At Hospira (2009-2015), I successfully completed a similar global technology remediation program. More importantly, I collaborated with domestic and international Vice Presidents to design a new global support strategy aimed at improving agility and expertise by achieving an improved balance of Hospira IT employees and outsourced associates at no incremental cost to Hospira. My efforts resulted in a more sophisticated sourcing model with 25% fewer plant technology outages and faster mean time to resolve issues.

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Experience:

• Vice President Information Technology (Stepan Company)
• Senior Manager (Five9 Technologies)
• Vice President Global IT Infrastructure (Weber-Stephen Products LLC)
• Director, Enterprise Infrastructure & Plant IT Operations (Hospira)
• Senior Manager (YJT Solutions)

Skills: