Angela Yochem, CIO of Rent-A-Center

Summary: Among other topics, Angela discusses the following issues with Metis Strategy:<br> <br> * Executing Rent-A-Center’s digital transformation<br> * CIOs driving business innovation<br> * The impact of a single decision across the enterprise<br> * Keeping the end-customer at the front of the decision making process<br> * Excelling in the First 100 Days<br> * The two characteristics that board search committees are seeking in CIOs<br> * Methods for staying abreast of and understanding cutting edge technology<br> * Angela’s Entrepreneur as Residence experience<br> * Eyes on the trends: Fast prototyping and feedback, Artificial intelligence, STEM education<br> <br> Angela is the Chief Information Officer of Rent-A-Center, a $3 billion rent-to-own industry leader based in Plano, TX. As CIO, Angela is executing a transformative digital strategy.<br> Prior to joining Rent-A-Center, Angela was the Global CIO at BDP International, the Global CTO at AstraZeneca, Divisional CIO at Dell, and held senior leadership positions at several other publicly traded companies.<br> Angela serves on the board of Rocana, a successful enterprise technology start-up backed by General Catalyst and Google Ventures. She is also an Entrepreneur in Residence with SKTA Innopartners, a tech startup accelerator. She is a past board member of the Federal Home Loan Bank of Pittsburgh.<br> Angela holds US patents relating to dynamic authorization and identity within digital channels.<br> Angela has a bachelor’s degree in music from DePauw University. She earned an MS in computer science from the University of Tennessee, where she serves on the advisory board of the Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Department.<br> I recently caught up with Angela over the phone from her office in Plano, TX. Our conversation covered World Class IT Principle Four, IT &amp; Business Partnerships, as Angela described the importance of CIOs understanding, supporting, and driving the interdependencies that exist in complex, modern enterprises. Angela also shared how CIOs need to adopt the mindset of CEOs, how she prepared for her First 100 Days at Rent-A-Center, her experience as a board-level CIO, and her views on a variety of other topics.<br>