GE's CIO is very different

"Gary Reiner isn't like other CIOs. The average chief information officer's tenure is just over three years, but he has held the job at General Electric for the past dozen years - the period when the foundation of GE's business shifted from manufacturing to services to information. Most CIOs complain about their budgets' getting squeezed, but Reiner's is growing and, at $4 billion, is almost the size of a Fortune 500 company. Many CIOs report to the chief financial officer, but Reiner reports to the big boss, GE's CEO, Jeff Immelt. Most strikingly, other CIOs are rarely in charge of critically important non-infotech responsibilities, but Reiner has been running GE's massive Six Sigma initiative since 1996 and also oversees the company's $55 billion of annual sourcing."

Read the interview with Gary at Fortune