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Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsFree Scan →Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitchesFind Drivers →Yes—a business executive can become a CIO, but business fluency does not substitute for technology leadership. The strongest candidates combine customer, finance and operating experience with enough enterprise-IT knowledge to make sound architecture, security and delivery decisions. The right balance depends on the company: a modern, flexible technology estate can support a more business-oriented CIO, while a large legacy environment demands deep IT experience.
Why the CIO job is attracting business executives
The CIO role has moved beyond keeping systems available and costs controlled. Martha Heller, CEO of Heller Search Associates, described the change this way: “The CIO role used to be defined as an operational position that would focus on efficiency and keeping the business running faster, cheaper, better, and safer. Now, technology leadership isn’t about running the business; it’s about changing the business and finding new opportunity.”
That shift makes leaders from finance, operations, sales or general management credible contenders. They may already understand customers, revenue, margins, risk and board communication—the context in which technology investments are judged.
The 2022 State of the CIO findings reported by CIO illustrate the emphasis at that time:
| Finding | Reported result | Edition and attribution |
|---|---|---|
| CIO work was more focused on digital and innovation | 86% | State of the CIO, 2022, as reported by CIO |
| CIOs were viewed as critical changemakers | 84% | State of the CIO, 2022, as reported by CIO |
| CIOs were expected to maintain a strong educational partnership with the CEO and board | 79% | State of the CIO, 2022, as reported by CIO |
These are historical findings from that edition, not a 2026 measurement.
Do CIOs need a technical background?
They need technical grounding, although they do not necessarily need to have started as software engineers or infrastructure specialists. A CIO must be able to challenge assumptions, understand architectural trade-offs, assess delivery risk and oversee cybersecurity, data and operations. Delegating technical work is possible; delegating accountability is not.
Heller’s qualification is decisive: candidates with P&L experience may speak the board’s financial language, “but that’s all predicated on a company having an agile, modern architecture. If you’ve got a massive investment in legacy IT, you can’t have a CIO that doesn’t have an enterprise IT background.”
Rank #2
Vince Kellen, CIO of the University of California, San Diego, expresses the balance as follows: “You have to get away from the core of technology into the core of business without leaving the core of technology behind.”
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The 2022 CIO feature attributed a more-than-threefold increase between 2015 and 2018 in CIOs coming from non-IT backgrounds to Gartner. It also said a little over a quarter of IT leaders entered the job without the customary years of hands-on IT experience. Those figures are the feature’s account of Gartner research; the original Gartner publication was not independently reviewed for this article, so they should not be treated as a current census.
The trend does not mean business executives are replacing technologists wholesale. It indicates that employers are considering broader evidence of leadership when the technology organization and architecture can support it.
Two routes to the CIO role
The feature describes both traditional IT progression and entry from business leadership. Neither route is automatically superior. Hiring committees should examine the same practical dimensions in each candidate:
| Dimension | Business-led route | Traditional IT route |
|---|---|---|
| Business fluency | Often developed through P&L, customer, finance or operating roles | May require deliberate rotations, operating assignments or executive education |
| Technical depth | Must be built through delivery work, architecture exposure and trusted technical advisers | Usually accumulated through hands-on IT, engineering, infrastructure or enterprise-architecture roles |
| Organizational fit | Best suited to a modern, flexible estate with strong technical leadership beneath the CIO | Especially valuable where legacy systems, integration debt or reliability work dominate |
| Outcome evidence | Can connect technology to growth, customers and financial results | Can connect delivery, resilience and efficiency to business results |
This is a decision framework drawn from the reported examples, not a validated hiring scorecard.
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How business experience can improve technology leadership
Understanding the economics
Experience with a budget, P&L or investment case helps a CIO explain why a project deserves funding, what it displaces and how success will be measured. Richard Wiedenbeck, Ameritas’ senior vice president and chief technology and transformation officer, said his background gave him “that lens and ability to speak their language” because “technology has to care as much about business outcomes as the business does.”
Seeing customers and operations
Business roles expose leaders to frontline friction, process bottlenecks and customer expectations. That perspective can prevent an IT roadmap from becoming a list of technical upgrades disconnected from value.
Communicating with directors
Executives who have worked with finance, operations and boards may be more comfortable translating uncertainty, risk and trade-offs for nontechnical decision-makers. That communication is useful, but it must rest on accurate technical judgment.
What the CIO mandate looks like in newer reporting
A separate Foundry feature dated Nov. 20, 2025, described the CIO as balancing business strategy with technology implementation, including AI adoption, transformation, cybersecurity and continuing operational responsibilities. Its 2025 State of the CIO survey covered 906 IT leaders and 250 line-of-business professionals.
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| 2025 finding | Result |
|---|---|
| IT leaders describing the role as strategic | 41%, up from 35% in 2024 |
| IT leaders expecting to sustain a strategic orientation over the next three to five years | 52% |
| IT respondents describing the charter as digital and innovation focused | 82% |
| Line-of-business participants describing the charter as digital and innovation focused | 76% |
| Respondents saying CIOs were leading digital-transformation initiatives | 82% |
| Respondents calling the balance between business innovation and operational excellence an ongoing challenge | 76% |
These 2025 results come from a different survey edition and source than the 2022 figures; questionnaire wording, samples and methods have not been established as directly comparable.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.How to prepare for a CIO candidacy
- Build business range. Seek rotations or projects in finance, operations, product, sales or customer service. An MBA can help, but hands-on responsibility is the evidence employers can evaluate.
- Own measurable outcomes. Document improvements in revenue, customer experience, risk, resilience, speed or cost—not only systems delivered.
- Learn modern architecture. Become conversant in cloud, microservices, application programming interfaces and agile development, while understanding where those approaches do not fit.
- Retain technical credibility. Review architecture decisions, security controls, data dependencies and operating metrics with experienced engineers and architects. You should be able to ask informed questions and recognize unacceptable risk.
- Practice board-level translation. Explain a technology choice in terms of strategic options, financial exposure, timing, controls and expected business results.
- Match your profile to the estate. A transformation-focused company with modern platforms may value a business-led CIO. A company undertaking a major core-system replacement or carrying substantial technical debt will usually require proven enterprise-IT leadership.
Questions boards should ask a business-led CIO candidate
- Which architecture, security and reliability decisions have you personally overseen?
- How have you handled a failed technology initiative or an operational outage?
- What is your plan for technical debt, legacy integration and data quality?
- How will you decide between modernizing, replacing and retiring systems?
- Which business outcomes will change if the proposed technology investment succeeds?
- Which technical leaders will provide depth, and how will you hold them accountable?
The practical verdict
Business leaders can credibly pursue the CIO role when they add real technology judgment to their business record. The opportunity is strongest where the organization is already digitally enabled and needs a leader who can connect technology with strategy. In a heavily legacy-dependent organization, enterprise-IT experience remains a core requirement, not an optional credential.
As Bhaskar Ramachandran, PPG’s vice president and CIO, put it: “In the 1990s, no one questioned whether the CFO role was strategic, and by 2020, no one should have similar questions about the CIO role.” The modern CIO mandate is strategic—but strategy still has to work in the systems, architecture and controls that run the company.
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