Will Va Secretary McDonald Go Back To P&G For His CIO?

Robert McDonald, the former Procter & Gamble CEO and secretary of Veterans Affairs since Wednesday afternoon, may enlist Filippo Passerini, the P&G chief information officer, as VA CIO, according to medium-strength signals I’ve picked up. The VA CIO slot has been empty since February 2013, when Roger Baker resigned.

Passerini, born in Italy, has worked for P&G for his entire career since he signed on as a systems analyst in Rome in 1981, after earning a doctorate in statistics and operating research the same year.

In an interview with Forbes in March 2013, Passerini said he did not see himself as a stereotypical CIO, as he also spent portions of his career in marketing. He told Forbes he learned at P&G to treat IT as a commodity enabler of business functions, an indication of the approach he could take at VA...