From CIO To Headhunter, Tech Execs Try Uncommon Career PathFrom CIO To Headhunter, Tech Execs Try Uncommon Career Path

The career path from CIO to IT consultant is well worn. But three former top technology chiefs from the manufacturing and automotive industries have headed in another direction: helping other executives find new jobs.

Three former IT executives--Gary Erickson, Gary Robertson, and Larry Hamilton--are partners in a Detroit-area headhunter firm called Executive Search Partners, tapping the contacts from a combined 100 years in IT.

"We've hired hundreds of people ourselves. We fully understand the business requirements," says Robertson, a former auto-industry veteran whose 38-year career spanned stints as CIO and plant manager at Delco Electronics and chief technology officer at Delphi.

Erickson actually launched the firm in 2002 as Erickson Partners LLC. Erickson is a three-time CIO at companies such as Hoover Universal, which is now part of Johnson Controls; Vickers, formerly part of Eaton; and R.L. Polk. Robertson, a former CIO who was a member of the Hewlett-Packard/Compaq board of advisers as well, joined as a partner late last year. Hamilton, whose 30-year career included manager of IS for the Budd Co., VP of information systems for Textron Automotive, and the global director of manufacturing-plant-floor systems for General Motors, came on board last month. That prompted them to cast the firm as Executive Search Partners LLC.

The firm specializes in finding matches for technology executives such as CIOs and directors, but also does some nontech professionals such as sales and consulting, Robertson says. With the three partners' deep roots in the automotive and industrial sectors, the majority of placements so far have been in the Michigan area, although a few have been outside the region, including California, he says.

Robertson says that even though he's no longer building and running an IT organization himself, he's a firm believer in the power of IT to transform business and drive innovation. "The only way for a company to do things first is by putting IT behind it."