Top CIOs to Watch in 2020

Myles Weber

Chief Information Officer, Appian

Myles Weber’s role at Appian is an unusual one for a chief information officer.

“Many software companies don’t have a CIO,” he said. “If they do, he or she focuses on the nuts and bolts of infrastructure.”

Weber, however, is a self-proclaimed business CIO, and his long-standing mandate from his CEO is to focus and align the company around how it uses automation internally.

“How we optimize our cloud business, our support team, our IT operations, etc.,” Weber said.

His biggest recent accomplishment was leading Appian’s acquisition of Novarye Solutions, a robotic process automation vendor based in Spain. The strategic acquisition brought great people into the organization and great RPA technology directly into Appian’s low-code automation platform.

“Alongside [artificial intelligence]and workflow, this enables our full stack automation platform,” Weber explained. He led the acquisition pre-deal, starting last fall, through post-deal product integration and the launch of Appian RPA this March, and he has remained focused on how Appian is taking advantage of this for its business.

The COVID-19 pandemic made the urgency for fast and powerful automation technology obvious. Overnight, organizations saw their people dispersed and their processes blown up.

However, Appian is adept at using automation for rapid change.

“It’s our business,” Weber said, “and as CIO, I made sure we invested in being a cloud-first company a long time ago. We ascertained early on that our business was going to be able to function, and our people would be OK, during the pandemic.”

So, Weber and his team quickly turned their attention to how they could help other companies and their communities. Starting in April, Appian created a series of automation solutions designed to help companies protect their people and keep their business processes moving.

Why Watch

“As we head into 2021, my role as Appian’s CIO is growing in a very exciting way,” Weber said. In addition to his internal focus, Weber will be much more on the forefront, working directly with customers and partners, helping them adopt and see the value of emerging automation technologies.