Job Title : Global CIO and Business Process Director

Organization : Diageo

Brian Franz is global CIO and business process director for drinks giant Diageo – a company he joined in 2008 from beverage business PepsiCo where he was senior VP and CIO for PepsiCo International.

At Diageo, Franz is responsible for a 450-strong IT team, and heads up the global IT function. He’s charged with driving value for the business through agile IT – this strategy includes championing common global processes and getting the most out of existing technology assets. He’s also been concerned with embedding controls and compliance throughout the organisation.

Before PepsiCo, US-born Franz spent 14 years with General Electric – including working as commercial CIO for all of its sales and marketing organisations worldwide, and taking on the role of CIO and integration leader at Heller Financial during its acquisition by GE in 2001. He also acted as CIO of Corporate Systems and Global Operations for GE.

His earlier career was spent in various IT roles at telecoms company AT&T and publisher Reader’s Digest.

Franz has a BA in Computer Science from Iona College, New York and a Masters in Telecommunications and Computing Management from Polytechnic University, New York. He is married with two children.