Winners of 2023 Tennessee ORBIE Awards Announced By TennesseeCIO

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Inspire Leadership Network

May 19, 2023, 11:45 ET

Executives from Bridgestone Americas, Community Health Systems, Cracker Barrel Old Country Store, Kenco Logistics, Varsity Spirit LLC, & Asurion Recognized for their Achievements

NASHVILLE, Tenn., May 19, 2023 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ --TennesseeCIO announced the winners of its 2023 ORBIE® Awards. TennesseeCIO recognized technology executives in six key categories – Leadership, Global, Large Enterprise, Enterprise, Large Corporate, & Corporate. The Awards were presented at the Tennessee ORBIE Awards at the Renaissance Nashville Hotel.

"Every organization is technology-dependent, but strong leadership is the X-factor that can turn mundane IT into a remarkable strategic differentiator," said Andy Flatt, TennesseeCIO Chair. "The ORBIE Awards are meaningful because they are judged by peers – CIOs who understand the challenges of technology leadership. Increasingly, having strong business-centric, executive technology leadership is key not only to success, but to the very existence of the business."

The 2023 Tennessee ORBIE Award winners are:

Barry Vandevier, COO, Asurion (ret) received the Leadership ORBIE.
Taren Rodabaugh, CIO, Bridgestone Americas received the Global ORBIE for organizations up to $25 billion annual revenue & multi-national operations.
Paul Novak, CIO, Community Health Systems received the Large Enterprise ORBIE for organizations up to $75 billion annual revenue.
Bruce Hoffmeister, CIO, Cracker Barrel Old Country Store received the Enterprise ORBIE for organizations up to $10 billion annual revenue.
Steve Hitchings, SVP & CIO, Kenco Logistics received the Large Corporate ORBIE for organizations up to $2.1 billion annual revenue.
Rick Brown, SVP & CIO, Varsity Spirit LLC received the Corporate ORBIE for organizations up to $1 billion annual revenue.

The ORBIE Awards is the premier technology executive recognition program in the United States. Since inception in 1998, over 700 technology leaders have received the prestigious ORBIE Award. The ORBIE honors chief information officers who have demonstrated excellence in technology leadership. Finalists and winners are selected by an independent peer review process, led by prior ORBIE recipients, based upon:

Leadership and management effectiveness
Business value created by technology innovation
Engagement in industry and community endeavors

The Tennessee ORBIE Awards keynote was delivered by Becky Blalock, Former Fortune 500 CIO, Author, Consultant & Board Member. Over 230 guests attended, representing leading Tennessee organizations and their technology partners.

The 2023 Tennessee ORBIE Awards was made possible by the following sponsors:

Underwriters: Concord, Google Cloud, Kanini, Lumen & Verinext
Gold sponsors: Fortinet, Okta, Snowflake & TrendMicro + TxOne
Silver sponsors: Accenture, Ahead, Alida, CMAC, Hexaware Technologies, Innova Solutions, Palo Alto Networks & Publicis Sapient
Bronze sponsors: Between Pixels, Blackbaud, C Spire Business, Dell Technologies, Internetwork Engineering, ServiceNow, T-Mobile, Tanium & VMware
Media partner: Nashville Business Journal

About TennesseeCIO
TennesseeCIO is the preeminent peer leadership network of Tennessee chief information officers. TennesseeCIO is one of 30 chapters of the Inspire Leadership Network, a national membership organization comprised exclusively of CIOs from public and private businesses, government, education, healthcare and nonprofit institutions.

TennesseeCIO is led by a CIO Advisory Board, supported by an executive director and staff. Underwriter executives ensure programs remain non-commercial and exclusive to qualified CIOs and members.