John Buckley is the new Vice-President and Chief Information Officer for Liberty Health, Markham, Ont. Most recently, he spent two years in Halifax as a partner with Sierra Systems, responsible for the company’s Atlantic Canada health practice. Mr. Buckley’s main focus will be to build and integrate information technology into Liberty’s overall value proposition as a provider of health insurance and management services.
Jack B. Ott has been named Chief Information Officer for Allianz Canada, 
part of the world-wide Allianz Group, a global financial services organization. Mr. Ott has been with Allianz Canada for six years, serving as Vice-President, Information Technology. The CIO appointment is in recognition of the strategic role that technology now plays at Allianz Canada. The company has made strong headway in the areas of data warehousing and the development of leading-edge systems for Claims handling. An aggressive systems development program is now underway to deliver industry-leading policy management systems.
Donald Stevens has assumed the role of Vice-President Information Technology at Farm Credit Canada, Regina, where for the past two years he held the position of VP and Treasurer. FCC, a federal Crown organization that offers financial services across Canada, is the country’s largest term-credit lender with a sole focus on agriculture. Mr. Stevens’ major challenge will be to re-engineer the IT division to align with the business.
David Woodman has been appointed Director, Information Services, Imperial Oil Limited. Based in Toronto, his major challenge will be cost management. Mr. Woodman recently spent two years in Tokyo, where he held the position of Japan Area I.S. Manager for Exxonmobil Japan.
Gary Saarenvirta, former Practice Leader at IBM Canada Global Services, 
has been appointed Chief Technology Officer of Adastra Corporation. Adastra is a Toronto-based international consultancy in Business Intelligence, Customer Intelligence and Data Warehousing. Mr. Saarenvirta will be responsible for the technology vision, business solutions development and data mining practice.
After more than 35 years in senior IT management at Imperial Oil and ExxonMobil, 
Hank Schut has been named Managing Director of Solutions Delivery at Calgary-based RIS Resource Information Systems, Inc., an applications support and maintenance company. Mr. Schut’s Canadian experience includes stints as Director of IS at Imperial Oil, Manager of Corporate Application Development, Maintenance and Support at Imperial Oil, and IT Manager at Esso Chemical Canada.
CareerWatch is compiled with the assistance of Douglas Weir, President of Weir Executive Search Associates Inc., a Toronto firm specializing in IT executive recruitment. He can be reached at dw@weirassociates.com.
