CIO Profiles: Anuj Dhanda Of PNC Financial Services

Career Track

How long at PNC Financial Services: 17 years

Career accomplishment I'm most proud of: I led the implementation of an enterprise-wide customer relationship management system, providing a single view of a PNC customer to more than 20,000 customer-facing employees across distribution channels and business segments. This has given us a competitive advantage, serving the comprehensive needs of our clients.

Most important career influencer: My father has always been very supportive of my aspirations. His advice was to follow both my head and heart. That gave me the freedom to make choices that I felt great about without being encumbered by logic and facts alone--like my decision to opt for a tech career even though I don't have formal training in the discipline.

On The Job

IT budget: $1.2 billion

Size of IT team: 4,000 people

Top initiatives:

How I measure IT effectiveness: We measure our success with operational excellence metrics, key risk indicators, employee engagement, and financial measures, including the ratio of spend on investment to maintenance activities.

Vision

The next big thing for my industry will be ... big data and business intelligence. We'll increasingly leverage information and insights to differentiate with innovative products, excellent customer experience, and expanded convenience of distribution channels. Information capabilities will be a critical success factor for managing the risk of the firm.

One thing I'm looking to do better: We're focused on improving the scalability and speed to market of our technology platform.

Kids and tech careers: I give my children the same advice I received from my father--to follow their heads and hearts as they make key life decisions. Both selected studies that could land them in financial services in the future.

Personal

Colleges/degrees: Rutgers University, BA and Ph.D.

Leisure activities: Traveling and reading

Best book read recently: Cutting For Stone, by Abraham Verghese

Business leader I'd like to have lunch with: Warren Buffett, especially if he has a good investment tip to share!

Favorite sports team: Pittsburgh Steelers

Ranked No. 32 in the 2011