Chief Information and Digital Officer (CIDO) Certificate

Virtual Orientation: 12:00 - 5:00 p.m. EDT
Sept. 30 - Oct. 2, 2025

Virtual Modules: 4:00 - 9:00 p.m. EDT/EST
(Note: all virtual class dates are Wednesdays)
October 8, 15, 22 (2025)
November 5, 12, 19 (2025)

Mid-Session: 9:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. EST (CMU, Pittsburgh, PA; virtual option available)
December 2 - 4, 2025

Virtual Modules: 4:00 - 9:00 p.m. EST
(Note: all virtual class dates are Wednesdays)
December 10 (2025)
January 7, 14, 21 (2026)
February 4, 11, 25 (2026)

Practicum: 9:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. EDT (CMU, Pittsburgh, PA; virtual option available)
March 18-19, 2026

Application deadline is September 23, 2025.

The final module and program practicum will be held in person at our main campus in Pittsburgh:

Heinz College of Information Systems and Public Policy
Carnegie Mellon University
4800 Forbes Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15213

A virtual option will be offered for the final module and program practicum; students will not be required to travel to complete the program.

Earning your executive education certificate is just the beginning of a lifelong relationship with CMU; we're here to help you advance your career throughout your professional life. The Heinz College Executive Advantage program is meant for people who always want to be ahead of the curve—those who want to lead the conversation, not just be a part of it. 

Executive Advantage was designed with you—C-suite executives and lifelong learners—in mind. In addition to the valuable skills you gain through our executive certificate programs, you now have access to workshops, leadership summits, and conferences. 

Instructors: 
Steve Agnoli | CIO (Ret.), Reed Smith LLP

This foundational module prepares executives to lead as modern Chief Information and Digital Officers (CIDOs) operating at the center of enterprise transformation, business strategy, and organizational performance. Participants will examine how the CIDO role has evolved from a primarily technology-focused function into a critical enterprise leadership position accountable for enabling growth, operational resilience, innovation, workforce modernization, and measurable business value. The module emphasizes the expanding expectations placed on today’s CIDO by CEOs, boards of directors, regulators, and executive peers. Participants will explore how leading CIDOs establish credibility as enterprise strategists, align technology and digital investments with organizational priorities, communicate effectively with business stakeholders, and drive cross-functional transformation initiatives. Special focus is placed on enterprise accountability, governance, decision rights, and balancing innovation with operational excellence and risk management.

Instructors: 
Honorable Dana Deasy | CIDO and SVP, Information Technology & Data Analytics, Boeing

This module equips executives with the strategic frameworks, leadership approaches, and execution methodologies required to develop and operationalize enterprise-wide IT and digital strategies that align with organizational priorities and deliver measurable business value. Designed for current and aspiring CIDOs, the module focuses on how technology leaders translate enterprise objectives into actionable transformation roadmaps, investment priorities, and scalable operating capabilities. Participants will examine how leading organizations develop integrated IT, digital, data, AI, cybersecurity, and modernization strategies that support growth, operational resilience, innovation, customer experience, and competitive differentiation. The module emphasizes the importance of aligning technology strategy with business strategy, prioritizing enterprise capabilities, and ensuring that investments are tied to measurable outcomes and long-term organizational objectives.

Get expert insights from Dana Deasy: The Evolving Role of the Chief Information and Digital Officer

Instructor: 
Ari Lightman | Distinguished Service Professor, Heinz College; Author, Monster Transformations

This case study-driven module examines how leading organizations have navigated large-scale digital, operational, and business transformation initiatives in response to disruption, competitive pressure, technological change, and evolving customer expectations. Designed for senior executives and emerging CIDOs, the module provides an in-depth analysis of enterprise modernization efforts across industries, highlighting both successful strategies and critical lessons learned from complex transformation journeys. Drawing on insights from Ari Lightman’s book, Monster Transformations, the module explores how organizations can successfully navigate “monster” transformations—large, complex change initiatives that fundamentally reshape enterprise operations, culture, technology, and business models. Participants will examine the leadership, governance, communication, and execution challenges associated with transformation at scale, as well as the organizational behaviors that differentiate successful transformations from those that stall or fail.

Instructors: 
Davor Brkovich | CIO, Matthews International

This module is focused on the requirement for today’s CIDO to develop a budget that aligns with the annual strategic planning process and is supported by key organizational stakeholders. This often needs to be developed in environments with significant third-party managed services and where growth strategies include regular business acquisitions and divestitures. The module will discuss in detail how to properly convey the value of the CIDO organization to executive management and the board. The modules will also review how to calculate ROI on technology investments and make data-driven financial decisions that drive business value.

Instructors: 
Bill Fortwangler | Senior Vice President & CIO, Dollar Bank

This module examines how modern CIDOs govern enterprise technology portfolios, manage strategic vendor ecosystems, and drive disciplined execution across complex transformation initiatives. Designed for senior technology and digital leaders, the module focuses on the operational and strategic mechanisms required to prioritize investments, coordinate enterprise delivery, manage external partnerships, and ensure that modernization efforts produce measurable business outcomes. The module emphasizes the importance of establishing enterprise execution discipline through clear prioritization frameworks, governance structures, delivery oversight, and performance accountability.

Get expert insights from Bill Fortwangler: Why Third-Party Risk Management Matters More Than Ever

Instructor: 
Rashid Desai | CIO, Data & Analytics, Chief Engineer, National Australia Bank

This module equips CIDOs with a strategic framework to assess, design, and execute an enterprise infrastructure modernization journey aligned to business priorities, financial discipline, and long-term technology resilience. Moving beyond technology selection, the module emphasizes how infrastructure decisions enable agility, scalability, and innovation while managing cost, risk, and vendor dependency. Participants will evaluate cloud and on-premises strategies through the lens of enterprise architecture, operating model impact, and total cost of ownership. The module also explores how to structure migration pathways, design for portability, and incorporate emerging capabilities from leading cloud providers to future-proof infrastructure investments.

Instructors: 
Michael Smith | Professor of Information Technology, Heinz College
Brian Walker | Chief Product Officer, Grainger

The digital economy is increasingly powered by platform-based business models that drive value creation and network effects. This module explores how companies can build, scale, and manage digital platforms and ecosystems, leveraging API-driven architectures, marketplaces, and SaaS models. Participants will learn how to shift from traditional product development to platform thinking, foster innovation, expand market reach, and create sustainable competitive advantages.

Instructors: 
Matt Butkovic | Technical Director of Cybersecurity Risk and Resilience, CERT Division at the Software Engineering Institute
Greg Touhill | Director, CERT Division at the Software Engineering Institute

Cybersecurity, risk management, and organizational resilience have become core enterprise leadership responsibilities for today’s CIDO. This module examines how technology leaders can build secure, resilient, and risk-aware organizations capable of operating in an environment of escalating cyber threats, regulatory complexity, operational disruption, and AI-driven risks. Participants will explore modern cybersecurity strategy, enterprise risk management frameworks, regulatory and compliance considerations, third-party and supply chain risk, incident response, business continuity, and resilience planning. The module also focuses on the CIDO’s role in communicating cyber risk to executive leadership and boards while integrating security, resilience, and operational continuity into broader enterprise and digital transformation strategies.

Instructor: 
Sharad Kumar | Global Solutions CTO, Data & AI, Qlik

This module focuses on the foundational operational and governance capabilities required to manage enterprise data as a strategic asset for scalable AI, analytics, and digital transformation. Participants will examine how modern organizations establish enterprise-wide data management practices and tooling that improve data quality, interoperability, governance, consistency, and operational trust across complex business and technology environments. The module explores how leading organizations operationalize data governance, stewardship, metadata management, master data management, lineage, and lifecycle management to support enterprise AI deployment and decision-making. Participants will also evaluate organizational models, operational processes, and technology architectures that enable scalable and governed data and AI ecosystems across hybrid and cloud environments.

Instructors: 
Jennifer Honig | Chief Executive Officer, Techstra Solutions LLC
Larry Honig | Chief Digital Officer, Techstra Solutions LLC

As enterprises move beyond traditional automation and isolated generative AI use cases, a new paradigm is emerging - agentic AI systems capable of planning, reasoning, and autonomously executing multi-step tasks across complex enterprise environments. For CIDOs, this shift represents both a significant opportunity to redefine operating models and a mandate to establish the technical, architectural, and governance foundations required to deploy these capabilities responsibly at scale. This module equips CIDOs with a clear understanding of how to evolve from rules-based automation and copilots toward orchestrated networks of AI agents embedded across business and IT workflows. Participants will examine how agentic systems integrate with enterprise architectures, data platforms, APIs, and security models, while also addressing reliability, observability, and human-in-the-loop controls.

Instructors: 
Ken Spangler | Executive Vice President IT, CIO Global OpCo Technologies (Ret.), FedEx 
Sumeet Chabria | Chief Executive Officer, ThoughtLinks

This forward-looking leadership module explores how modern CIDOs must evolve their organizations, operating models, leadership approaches, and enterprise architectures to lead effectively in the era of AI-native enterprises. As artificial intelligence becomes embedded across business operations, decision-making, customer engagement, workforce models, and enterprise platforms, technology leaders must rethink how organizations are structured, governed, and managed to operate with greater adaptability, intelligence, and speed. The module focuses on the transition from traditional IT operating models to AI-native enterprise models built around distributed intelligence, automation, data-driven decision-making, and continuous organizational adaptation. Participants will examine how leading organizations are redesigning workflows, governance structures, talent strategies, and technology ecosystems to enable scalable human-AI collaboration and enterprise-wide operational agility.

Get expert insights from Ken Spangler: Three Tips for a Winning Digital Strategy

Instructor: 
Anand Rao | Distinguished Service Professor, Heinz College; former Partner and Head of AI, PwC

This module examines the critical role of the Chief Information and Digital Officer (CIDO) in establishing enterprise-wide AI governance, assurance, and oversight capabilities that enable responsible, secure, compliant, and scalable adoption of artificial intelligence. As organizations increasingly operationalize generative AI, predictive analytics, autonomous systems, and agentic AI, CIDOs must build governance frameworks that balance innovation with risk management, regulatory compliance, trust, and business accountability. Participants will explore how leading enterprises are designing AI governance operating models, defining organizational accountability, and implementing controls across the AI lifecycle. The module emphasizes practical approaches for governing enterprise AI portfolios while ensuring transparency, explainability, fairness, cybersecurity, privacy, resilience, and regulatory readiness.

Instructor: 
Honorable Dana Deasy | CIDO and SVP, Information Technology & Data Analytics, Boeing

This closing module focuses on putting all the pieces together, covering the practical leadership, management, and operational disciplines required to effectively run a modern CIDO organization at enterprise scale. Designed for senior technology and digital executives, the module examines how high-performing CIDO organizations are structured, managed, and continuously optimized to support business priorities, transformation execution, operational resilience, and innovation delivery. Participants will explore how CIDOs establish scalable organizational models, leadership systems, and operational rhythms that enable alignment across technology, digital, data, AI, cybersecurity, and business functions. The module emphasizes the importance of creating clear accountability structures, effective operating cadences, measurable performance systems, and adaptable organizational models capable of evolving alongside enterprise priorities.

• Finalize project deliverables
• Preparation for team presentations
• Delivery of final project presentations
• Student graduation