Cardinal Health, Inc. corporate office in Dublin, Ohio.
As Cardinal Health continues its digital transformation efforts, newly appointed Chief Information Officer Michelle Greene is focused on attracting and engaging top talent, speeding up data analytics and automation efforts, and creating a modern workplace. Across these initiatives, she has her eye on opportunities to help the company keep pace with the fast-changing healthcare industry.
“We have to move faster and be clear about where we want to focus our energy,” Greene said in an August interview. To do that, Greene is working closely with peers across the Cardinal Health to determine where to place technology bets, how to streamline existing processes, and how to make best use of the company’s data assets.
Greene joined the healthcare products distributor in 2021 as SVP of IT for the company’s pharmaceutical segment. She took on the CIO role last month following the departure of Brian Rice, who joined McDonald’s as Global CIO.
Michelle Greene
Greene’s time in Cardinal Health’s pharmaceutical division involved participation in a major SAP implementation, lots of interactions with customers, and a deep dive into distribution, logistics and supply chain, she said. That on-the-ground perspective, paired with relationships she developed with key business partners, have been useful as she identifies both pain points and new priorities.
Before joining Cardinal Health, Greene was CIO and VP of IT for Masco Corporation, a manufacturing conglomerate that houses brands such as Behr paint and Delta faucets. Before that, she spent nearly 10 years at Johnson Controls, where she held IT leadership positions across a number of divisions and served as VP of IT for business partnerships.
“That is what gets me energized, working elbow to elbow with business partners,” Greene said. Those partnerships will be key as Cardinal Health moves its transformation efforts forward in the weeks and months ahead.
Those efforts include creating a modern workplace, which covers a shift to agile and product-focused teams, a rethink of the digital user experience, and the automation and expansion of delivery capabilities. For example, the Cardinal Health team developed an internal DevSecOps platform to improve developer productivity and create a more efficient and secure delivery process.
Talent is another area of focus for Greene. One ongoing initiative is an upskilling program called Digital U. Spanning three levels — Digital Fluency, Digital Immersion, and Digital Colleges — the program delivers training in machine learning, design thinking, blockchain, analytics, and other skills aligned with where the business is going and how customer needs are changing.
“The first thing top of mind for me is talent,” Greene said. “It’s not always just about recruitment, but now more than ever, how do we engage and retain the talent we have so that we can help people achieve their goals.”
The Ohio-based company has undergone a series of leadership changes in recent weeks. Jason Hollar, Cardinal Health’s Chief Financial Officer since 2020, stepped into the CEO role at the beginning of September, succeeding Mike Kaufmann. Patricia English, SVP and Chief Accounting Officer, was named interim CFO.
