Title: Senior vice president and director of common services

Company: National City Corp.

Mentor: Joe McCartin, CIO

How are you being groomed for your next position? It's a combination of exposure to business context -- working with our lines of business to make sure I'm grounded in their objectives, strategies and plans -- and providing me the opportunity (and holding me accountable) for leadership on some of the large transformational activities. This serves in two ways: first, to deliver value to the organization, and second, to build credibility with the senior teams.

What's been your career ladder? After graduating from MIT, I progressed from design engineer through director of engineering roles at NCR Retail Systems. After that, I left to take on the role of president of Holaday Industries, an instrumentation firm. I was brought in to drive a refresh/turnaround in order to enable its acquisition. After the sale, I assumed the role of brand director for Dell Computer's OptiPlex PC product line [and was] responsible for brand management, marketing, portfolio management, etc. From there, I moved to National City (coming back to my hometown of Cleveland) and am currently leading the shared services function within IS. I have been here about four and a half years.