From the Executive Liaison

Zooming through 2008 with a Flurry of Activity

Where is the year going? It seems like just yesterday I stepped into the role of ChemITC Executive Liaison and in a flash, half the year flew by. I suppose we can probably attribute this to the fact that the first six months of this year have been filled with a lot of activity.

For starters, working with ChemITC Executive Board Chair Anne Wilms and The Boston Consulting Group, we reviewed ChemITC’s overall strategy with our Executive Board to determine where the organization is today and where we are headed. As a result of this review, three major initiatives have been identified:

1. Increase charter membership
2. Take cyber security to the next level
3. Build out benchmarking capabilities

We are actively pursuing all three of these initiatives at this time. I am leading a team to increase membership; Christine Adams and the Cyber Security Program Steering Team are examining the cyber security aspect of this charge; and Roger Sharpe and the Survey and Benchmarking Steering Team are looking at ways to expand benchmarking capabilities. You can read more about the ChemITC Strategy Renewal in this issue of ChemITC Connections.

March and April took the word “busy” to a whole new level. ChemITC hosted five very well-organized and well-attended spring meetings during this time. The CIOs kicked things off with the annual CIO Roundtable Spring Meeting. ChemITC’s two networking groups – Business Intelligence Technology and Telecommunications – shared knowledge about these prevalent technologies, followed by the Survey and Benchmarking Program’s meeting to review preliminary results from this year’s Annual IT Survey. The month culminated with more than 60 cyber security experts coming together in Miami for the Cyber Security Program Spring General Meeting. I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to attend three of these meetings and can assure you, there is a lot of excellent work and knowledge sharing taking place in each of our programs.

With spring meeting season behind us, we have turned our attention to the ChemITC Annual Conference. We are moving right along with the planning process and in fact, you should have received your first invitation to join us just a few days ago. This year, the conference will be held from Tuesday, Sept. 30 to Thursday, Oct. 2 at SAP Headquarters, which is approximately 30 minutes from the Philadelphia International Airport. Registration is now open so if you haven’t already, please make your plans to join us today. We are planning a few new sessions which we believe will significantly enhance the interaction between all ChemITC members – you won’t want to miss it!

The coming months will also be filled with plenty of activity. At the top of the list is my work with the Program Committee to finalize our plans for the Annual Conference. I also expect to spend a good bit of time working with our Governance Committee, Executive Board, ACC Leadership and Gibbs and Soell as we seek to address the growth areas identified in our strategy renewal and execute our plans to increase membership. I will keep you posted as we make progress on each of these initiatives.

Thanks to everyone for your help and support as the baton passed from Christine to me. If not sooner, I hope to see you all at the Annual Conference.

Chic Saile
Executive Liaison, ChemITC
Rohm and Haas