The finalists for WashingtonExec’s Chief Officer Awards were announced March 17, and we’ll be highlighting some of them until the event takes place live, in-person May 10.
Next is Chief Information Officer finalist in the Private Company category Chas Shaffer, CIO of Guidehouse. Here, he shares career advice, proud career moments, key achievements and more.
What key achievements did you have in 2022/2023?
Most recently and notably, a key achievement I am incredibly proud of is the exceptional prowess of my team during the Guidehouse acquisition of Grant Thornton’s Public Sector Advisory practice in late 2022.
Our ability to integrate the entire Grant Thornton Public Sector practice in essentially a week ⏤ due to the technology and team we have in place that’s second to none ⏤ is something that I’ve never seen another company be able to achieve.
This took place on the heels of the acquisition of Dovel Technologies in late 2021, and prior to that leading the enormously complex and fast paced merger of all systems with the firm’s acquisition of Navigant. Guidehouse’s cloud-only strategy that I spearheaded and oversee serves as the leading differentiator, enabling us to have swiftly integrated each of these teams in record speed.
What are you most proud of having been a part of in your current organization?
I would say working alongside Scott McIntyre to carve out this incredible business in 2018. Just a few short years ago we were a $600 Million company, to what is today $3.5 Billion and growing. We were able to build this company from 4 IT staff to over 200 IT staff in just over 4 years. I couldn’t be more proud or amazed at what we’ve accomplished together.
When I visit any of our offices, and I see the computers, printers, monitors ⏤ all the technology myself and my team are responsible for ⏤ what we are doing is key to our business, and I don’t know of anyone else in the industry who can do what we can. It’s humbling and brings me great pride. We don’t just keep the lights on ⏤ we are a very large part of Guidehouse and the firm’s ability to grow. A true combination of team, technology and business.
At the end of the day, it always comes down to what makes sense for the business. It wouldn’t mean anything to me to do everything we did from an IT perspective if the business hadn’t been so successful.
Looking back at your career, what are you most proud of?
When I look back at my career, it’s not “the team” but “the teams” ⏤ plural ⏤ I’ve built over the years that still continue to use the same kinds of values, work ethic and team goals that we created 20 + years ago.
I have been extremely fortunate to have led some amazing IT organizations throughout my career. The core values we created years ago have led some of those I once managed to now becoming CIOs themselves. We achieved so much together and no matter where our roads led, we all brought those lessons with us on our successful career journeys.
What’s your best career advice for those who want to follow in your footsteps?
When people ask me what my advice is for becoming CIO or leadership executive one day, I typically start with choosing the right school.
I did not go to an Ivy League school ⏤ I graduated from Old Dominion with a civil engineering degree ⏤ a very intense major with an extremely high fail out rate. I found that I was up against others throughout my career who were chosen for positions because they had stronger GPAs from an Ivy League or other highly regarded school. So, the advice I always give is go to the best school you can get into, and study something you’ll get good grades in.
Also don’t specialize in anything ⏤ the more diverse your background is, the better ⏤ especially as an IT leader. If you are purely technical it’s very difficult to become a strong CIO ⏤ you have to know the business side. That’s the biggest complement I get most of the time. It all comes down to truly understanding the business ⏤ applying the technology to make the business as successful as possible.
So, get a job managing people ⏤ work to manage people and business as early as you can. From my days running my family’s farm at age 12 (a $2.5 million business) to where I am in my career today, I take great pride in my mix of technical judgment, business acumen and operational discipline. I look at the big picture and can effectively say why we want to do something from a strategic perspective, and how that puts us at a competitive advantage.