Johnson & Johnson appoints CIO to lead business technology strategy

Dive Brief:

• Johnson & Johnson appointed Chris Della Rocca as its SVP, CIO of corporate business technology, the executive said Monday in a LinkedIn post. 
• Della Rocca, whose career at J&J spans nearly 20 years, most recently served as CIO of technical operations and risk, a role he took on in January. 
• The executive will oversee technology strategy for all corporate functions, including HR, finance, legal, corporate affairs, and technical operations and risk, the company said in an email.

Dive Insight:

Della Rocca has taken on several CIO roles for J&J since 2019, when he became CIO for the company’s Janssen Pharmaceuticals Americas division.

“We’re excited about the leadership and experience Chris brings to this role as we continue advancing healthcare through technology,” a company spokesperson said in an email. 

Della Rocca will report to EVP and CIO Jim Swanson, who joined J&J in 2019 after stints at Bayer, Monsanto and Merck.

More organizations are expanding the business influence of CIOs as operations become more technology driven. Alongside the increase in cloud, technology chiefs are seeing their performance measured in terms of profitability, according to ServiceNow data.

Technology leadership at Johnson & Johnson has worked to plug AI into operations and product development. 

“The technology is currently being used to help our employees detect disease at earlier stages, accelerate drug discovery, assist with clinical trial recruitment, map a patient’s anatomy before a procedure and help surgeons predict the best tool for surgery,” Swanson said in a release published last month.