PHILLIP VOLLTRAUER
Chief Information Officer at CDS
Can you please provide a little introduction about yourself
I’m Chief Information Officer for CDS, a national provider of telecommunications infrastructure solutions based out of Wayne, New Jersey. I joined the organization a few years ago to lead a comprehensive digital transformation program with the objective of automating our core business processes and democratizing our data to improve business decision-making. I lead the information technology function and oversee core infrastructure and cloud, data and analytics, cybersecurity, and administration of core business platforms. Additionally, I drive the strategy and development of in-house solutions to enhance or supplement our core business platforms.
On a personal note, I’m a father of four who has had the pleasure of actively participating in my children’s busy lives for the last two decades. I’ve been a volunteer basketball coach for 16 years and am currently coaching my youngest son’s team. I still play once a week in a men’s league as well. Additionally, I’m an avid reader with never less than three books on my reading list.
What has your journey to your position been like? What path have you taken?
I graduated college with a degree in Mechanical Engineering but quickly switched gears and started working for a Microsoft Solution Provider offering IT consulting services for big pharma firms in the NYC area. Those consulting years provided tremendous learning opportunities and exposed me to a variety of complex environments, paving the way for my first corporate role, where I was responsible for global client technologies for a public energy company. Over my 11 years there, the company survived bankruptcy and ultimately grew significantly through mergers and acquisitions. During these ups and downs, my career advanced rapidly with multiple promotions and steadily increasing responsibilities. With each advancement, I learned a different aspect of IT and how IT can be leveraged to strategically grow and improve businesses. This was also when I discovered my passion for mentorship and realized that I was better suited for leadership roles than as a technical guru. With each promotion, I took on increasing managerial responsibilities.
From there, I moved on to lead an IT team for a growing life safety business. As a member of the senior leadership team, I was able to view IT from a different lens. This role proved invaluable in my growth and ultimately gave me the skills and experience I needed to land my first C-level role, where I went back to the energy sector to lead IT for a global energy firm. I left that firm two years ago to join my current employer as their CIO.
Throughout this journey, I’ve been intentional in targeting roles that would fill knowledge and skills gaps. IT is a broad discipline with numerous focus areas, and I used every opportunity I could to gain exposure to as many as possible. I believe that a well-rounded IT leader needs to have deep knowledge of every level of their operation. Given the evolving landscape of IT, it is important for IT leaders to be lifelong learners and to stay abreast of the latest developments. With each transition, I’ve also identified myself less and less as a technologist and more and more as an executive business leader.
I continue to supplement my professional experience with certifications and memberships, the most notable of which was serving on the Board for the local chapter of the Society for Information Management. It’s critical to expose oneself to peers in your field struggling to solve the same problems you’re solving, so I’ve made it a point to seek out those engagements when possible.
Has it always been your vision to reach the position you’re at? Was your current role part of your vision to become a tech leader?
I firmly believed early on that my career would lead to progressively more challenging technical roles, and I envisioned myself as one day becoming a senior architect or engineer with valuable and elite technical skills. The reality of my journey was quite different. While I was beginning to differentiate myself as a technologist, I also proved to be good at influencing and teaching others, motivating team members, achieving consensus on difficult decisions, and optimizing ways of working. I realized the value of other non-technical skills, such as communication, prioritization, time management, and setting and meeting expectations. I am a holistic problem solver, and I was able to solve problems that weren’t just technical in nature.
To that end, I realized after my first supervisory role that I’d want to be a CIO as soon as possible. I also worked for a CIO who saw that in me, and so I began the long and arduous process of developing the skills I’d need to be successful in a CIO role.
Have you had a role model or mentor that has helped you on your journey? (If you feel comfortable, please share their name and how they helped you)
I’ve had a few. First and foremost was my father, who taught me the value of hard work and believing in myself. I’ve also benefited from working for many good leaders, the first being Bill Crowley, my first CIO, who saw my potential before I ever did. He continued to put me in challenging roles and allowed me to grow exponentially as a professional. Stu Kippelman was another CIO who was pivotal in my growth. He instilled in me a deep confidence during a challenging time for our company, allowing me to emerge as a stronger leader. Stu also taught me how important relationships are in executive roles and how to navigate corporate politics.
There have been many others who I’ve attempted to pattern my behavior after, and I believe it’s important to look for attributes you admire in others and try to learn from them even when they aren’t actively mentoring you. In each role I’ve had, there have been individuals at all levels of the organization who demonstrated aptitude in ways I admired and hoped to learn from.
How do you see the role of the technology leader evolving over the next 5 years?
Different organizations have different requirements for their respective technology leaders, but I believe some archetypes will be de-emphasized while others will become more critical. During times of economic growth, startups will need agile technology leaders to help them through their explosive early growth years. Those roles demand a technology leader who understands the business value of technology investments and can quickly adapt as the business pivots. Similarly, there will be established organizations looking to take advantage of growth opportunities who will realize that their existing technology function isn’t up to the task. Turn-around tech leaders will have ample opportunities to step into those roles and realign those technology functions as strategic growth drivers.
I also envision technology leaders partnering with other organizational leaders more closely in the coming years as cloud solutions rely less on technical and more on functional expertise. Tech leaders will need to become more comfortable giving up ownership and behaving in an advisory capacity while establishing the appropriate governance criteria for operation of those environments. Everyone wants to harness their data, and technology leaders can be the guiding light in those initiatives.
Cybersecurity and AI expertise are now table-stakes for tech leaders and will continue to be focus areas for businesses, so technology leaders will need to adequately invest in those areas. Generative AI in particular has captivated the world recently, and tech leaders will need to be able to assess how the emerging players in that space will disrupt their industries and potentially their organizations.
What skills do you think leaders of the future will need in order to thrive?
Leaders now more than ever need to possess the ability to handle complexity with steadiness and grace. Their organizations rely on them to provide direction through that increasing complexity and fast-paced change. A modern leader also needs to prioritize their most critical resource, their people, and recognize the exponential impact that high-performing people have on business performance.
Tech leaders have a unique view of the complexities of their organizations and how all the pieces fit together. In today’s environments with deep integration between platforms, tech leaders need to know not only how it all works but how a change will affect the ecosystem. They’ll need a deep understanding of the business as well as the technology that drives automation and integration. Process engineering is a must-have skill.
Tech leaders, now more than ever, also need to be strong stewards of the business. It is easy to become enamored with the latest tech fad, but tech leaders need to think critically and understand all the business criteria before making any commitments, or organizations will find themselves with shelfware that didn’t live up to promises. As the lines blur between technical and functional duties, sales professionals will have greater access to less tech-savvy functional leaders. In those situations, a technology leader may have to stop the momentum of an initiative that is already moving at top speed to avoid making poor investments. Good tech leaders will need to have established business credibility and a principled approach to decision-making.
Every organization defines their technical function differently, and it is important for technology leaders to be adaptable as businesses pivot, CEOs and other senior leaders are replaced, and markets continue to be disrupted. What landed you your current role might not keep you there, so you’ll have to understand what the business needs of you and deliver that. Building trust is the ultimate leadership skill because with so much uncertainty and with technology being an ephemeral concept to some, senior leaders will want to trust the judgment and guidance of their technology leaders. It is crucial to establish that trust in every interaction, big or small.
How do you keep current with new skills, technologies and personal development?
I’m an avid consumer of digital media and dedicate time every day to learning. YouTube, podcasts, eBooks, and online publications are my go-to sources. I make it a point to listen to books on audio during my workouts, and I try to stay abreast of the more popular self-development books. At this point, I’ve read or listened to almost every book on any reputable top-100 personal development reading list.
I also make it a point to take notes on areas I want to learn about throughout the day. Those notes become the rabbit hole I go down later in the evening. While I don’t need to become an expert at everything, I do want to ensure I can follow along in almost any conversation.
For big decisions, I’ll arrange discussions with a broad range of subject matter experts and analysts who have different and varying perspectives on the subject of interest. I’ll book time on my calendar with vendors as well as trusted members of my network. I’m lucky enough to have close friends who have deep subject matter expertise in a variety of critical areas, so for the price of a meal and a bottle of wine I can usually get invaluable insight on a particular topic.
Finally, I’ll attend conferences when I can find the time. I do one or two a year at minimum.
What do you see as the next leap in technology that will impact your business or industry in particular?
Businesses have been accumulating data for a while. They haven’t been as effective at strategically leveraging that data for competitive advantage.
Effectively leveraging data often requires sophisticated modeling and specific skillsets not readily available.
Generative AI appears to be poised to make that journey easier for organizations. The modeling and coding skills required to properly harness business data can now be abstracted through conversational language. This should suit the needs of most organizations and will free up resources for more critical work.
Quite frankly, I mostly don’t pay attention to tech trends because I’ve seen so many come and go with promises of revolutionizing the way we do things that don’t fully materialize. Call me cynical, but I’ll be ready to invest in tech when the tangible benefits are self-evident. That is rarely the case, and tech pioneers become so enamored with their cleverness that they lose sight of the problems we are solving for.
"This is a marathon, not a sprint."
If you were mentoring a leader of the future, what advice or guidance would you give to help them on their way?
Young leaders need to understand that this is a marathon, not a sprint. While some people are vaulted into high-profile leadership roles early in their careers, without the proper training and experience those individuals are rarely set up for success and will inevitably either fail or be humbled. If they don’t become the leaders they’re expected to become, they’ll lose the confidence of those around them, causing a loss of trust in them from both their leadership and their teams.
It is important to be self-aware and intentional about where you want to go. Create a plan with realistic milestones, and then get to work. Success is a result of that intentional grind, day after day, to reach those milestones. Sometimes there are leaps forward, sometimes there are lateral or even backward steps, but if you show up every single day you will move in the direction you want to go. 99% of your peers will not put in that work, and eventually, you’ll be the obvious choice for the leadership roles you are targeting. I see so many early career professionals allowing their employer to determine their growth trajectory. While you might get lucky and the wind may blow in the direction you want to go, don’t bank on it. Be intentional.
Knowing the proper milestones is where having the right mentor is important. They’ll not only challenge your thinking but be able to tell you where to focus your efforts so that you don’t waste your time. Early career individuals tend to focus on things that seem important at the time but aren’t. Most people also don’t recognize what their gifts are, and they focus their efforts on becoming a thing they fantasize about instead of maximizing their gifts and growing important skills to supplement their gifts. A good mentor will recognize your gifts even when you don’t. Good ones will also humble you if you’re convinced that you’re further along than you actually are.
It’s also important to understand not only the right things to do, but what to actively avoid doing. What differentiates great leaders is often not what they do but what they don’t do. Integrity, humility, patience, honesty, compassion… those and similar attributes separate the most admirable leaders from the rest. No matter how talented you are, you’ll have a lower ceiling if you treat people poorly or exhibit behaviors that are negatively viewed.
If you could change one thing in the world, what would it be?
We live in a very polarized world right now, and it seems as if social media and news broadcasts take advantage of that polarization for their own gain. I’d love to see political leaders enter the global stage who deescalate unnecessary tension and focus on reaching common ground with one another. The world is becoming increasingly more global, and our differences just aren’t all that different. I’d love to live in a world where we move past surface-level differences and focus on curing big problems like disease and poverty.
A big thank you to Phillip Volltrauer from CDS for sharing his journey to date.
If you would like to gain more perspective from Tech Leaders and CIOs you can read some of our other interviews here.
