Dawn Paquette
CIO
GE Aerospace
Dawn Paquette is the Chief Information Officer of GE Aerospace's GE Additive, Dowty and Unison Industries companies that span the globe. She is also the executive sponsor of the GE Aerospace Digital Technology Women's Network and a fierce advocate for DEI initiatives.
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Give us a brief overview of the path that led to your current role.
I always had a passion for business and people, and found my way to accounting and computer science after a high school teacher and mentor introduced me to the idea.
After starting my career in information technology and spending 20 years at Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield, I moved to GE Aerospace to embark on a new career journey in the manufacturing industry. Throughout my career, I have held a variety of generalist, COE IT and leadership roles, and have had the opportunity to work with and lead teams around the world.
I also had the opportunity to move out of IT a few times in my career into operational and functional business roles.
What is one of your guiding leadership principles?
Leading with transparency is my guiding leadership principle. This is critical as being open and honest is imperative to fostering a culture of embracing candor, sharing information in order to solve problems and contributing to development of others by providing constructive feedback.
What is the greatest challenge CIOs face today, and how are you addressing it?
The greatest challenge is digital transformation and P&L system alignment in light of GE's separation of companies and becoming standalone as GE Aerospace.
My individual organizations aligned to each of my P&L subsidiaries are ensuring our technical roadmaps marry up to the business priorities, and that the environments and systems meet the needs of today, tomorrow and the future.
What is the key to success for someone just starting out as a CIO?
The key to success is to build relationships and rapport with teams and leaders across the entire organization.
How do you measure success as a leader?
I measure success by asking, “Are my DT organizations delivering meaningful, metric moving solutions to the business thereby driving revenue while decreasing cost?”
What is the value of being a member of the Evanta community?
I value expanding my network and cross collaborating across industries.
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