Info services chief at Walt Disney Co. enjoys a joyful job.Info services chief at Walt Disney Noun 1. Walt Disney - United States film maker who pioneered animated cartoons and created such characters as Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck; founded Disneyland (1901-1966) Disney, Walter Elias Disney Co. enjoys a joyful job The timely delivery of paychecks to the 50,000 employees of Burbank-based The Walt Disney Co. was entrusted to Sharon D. Garrett on May 14, completing Garrett's meteroic rise to the top since she joined Mickey Mouse's outfit last year. "It's a peculiar and perhaps misleading promotion," says Garrett. "I haven't even moved out of my office yet. I certainly wasn't expecting it. And the challenges are basically the same." Garrett, 41, was named vice president of information services See Information Systems. and chief information officer of Disney after just nine months, succeeding former boss Bernard F. Mathaisel, who quit to become a partner in the Boston office of Ernst & Young's management consulting Noun 1. management consulting - a service industry that provides advice to those in charge of running a business service industry - an industry that provides services rather than tangible objects practice. Garrett joined Disney last June after serving as a deputy director of the UCLA Medical Center UCLA Medical Center is a hospital located on the campus of the University of California, Los Angeles in Los Angeles, California. It is rated as one of the top three hospitals in the United States and is the top hospital on the West Coast according to US News & World Report. for three years. "There's one primary difference between UCLA UCLA University of California at Los Angeles UCLA University Center for Learning Assistance (Illinois State University) UCLA University of Carrollton, TX and Lower Addison, TX and Disney -- at a healthcare facility every expenditure is forced; at Disney every expenditure is perfectly discretionary," says Garrett, who has a bachelor's degree, a master's degree master's degree n. An academic degree conferred by a college or university upon those who complete at least one year of prescribed study beyond the bachelor's degree. Noun 1. and a doctorate from UCLA. "By its very nature, the job at Disney is a lighter effort, knowing that it contributes to the joyful parts of a person's lives. I would have trouble working for a tire manufacturer." In addition to her payroll duties, Garrett is directly in charge of the about 400 computer programmers and technicians who work out of Disney's Burbank corporate command central, the smooth operation of Disney's two massive mainframe computers in Burbank and Florida and overseeing the performance of another 300 computer whizzes in Disney's film entertainment, attraction, consumer products and Imagineering divisions. Garrett says that the biggest immediate challenge as chief information officer will be to whittle down Verb 1. whittle down - cut away in small pieces wear away, whittle away damage - inflict damage upon; "The snow damaged the roof"; "She damaged the car when she hit the tree" the backlog of computer needs at Disney. Because of Disney's extraordinary 20-percent-a-year growth since Michael D. Eisner took over, Disney's computer needs throughout the organization have far outpaced the information services department's ability to fill them, she says. A new strategic plan, to be published in August, will outline how Disney will attack the computer and software shortages. |
|
||||||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion