Unusual resume

Morris' work experience is quite different from that of most CIOs. He started as a surgical oncologist at M.D. Anderson in 1985, four years after graduating from medical school. He became interested in how technology could improve the delivery of health care and volunteered to serve on technology-related committees.

His avocation became his job when he took the hospital's top tech position in 1997. He worked as CIO there until 2001, when he left to join First Consulting Group in Long Beach, Calif.

Leach acknowledges that Morris wasn't a techie but says he "displayed an aptitude and interest" in IT. However, being an IT natural doesn't make up for years of experience coming up through the ranks, "so Mitch had to make sure he had good people working for him," Leach says. For example, Morris created a deputy CIO position and hired a strong tech person to fill it.

Morris himself concedes that his technical expertise wasn't the same as that of someone who had spent a career in the trenches. But he says that didn't hinder him. "To be a successful CIO, you have to appreciate how the technology works, you have to know how to manage people, but you don't have to go into a data center and play with cables," he says.