Kirsten Garen has been tapped as CDK Global’s new Chief Information Officer (CIO), and is slated to become a member of its executive leadership team.
CDK Global describes itself as a retail automotive technology company. Garen’s role in the company will be to execute its IT strategy, which includes driving more innovation, high quality operations, and supporting customers, partners and employees.
“Kirsten’s ability to align operational execution and technology transformation with business outcomes make her the perfect fit to accelerate our vision to modernize, transform and support a digital future for our customers and employees,” said Mahesh Shah, Executive VP and Chief Product and Technology Officer, CDK Global.
Shah adds that Garen prioritizes developing talent and team collaboration, which is something he said matches well with CDK Global’s core values and corporate culture.
Garen enters her new role with more than 30 years of experience in technology and operations roles, and brings with her a diverse experience in driving change in customer-centric, growing organizations.
Prior to her new role, she served as CIO for Delta Dental of California, CIO for Bank of the West, and held senior executive technology and operations roles at VISA, Charles Schwab, and Bankers Trust.
Garen also holds a Bachelor of Business Administration from the University of Michigan, and a Master of Business Administration from the University of Pennsylvania Wharton School.
“I see tremendous opportunity for enterprise collaboration to drive efficiency and scale that will allow us to grow and work with our clients to transform their businesses,” said Garen. “We will focus on streamlining and optimizing the work of our teams to allow them to innovate and create new client solutions.”
