Bryan MacDonald Joins iRise Board of Advisors

EL SEGUNDO, Calif., Nov. 1, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- iRise®, the global leader in enterprise visualization solutions, today announced that Bryan MacDonald, an international expert on the role of the Chief Information Officer in the modern enterprise, has joined the company as a strategic consultant and member of the iRise Advisory Board.  MacDonald, formerly Regional Managing Partner for the Information Officer practice at Heidrick & Struggles, will work directly with iRise CEO & Co-Founder Emmet B. Keeffe III to help bring the benefits of visualization to the attention of the global CIO community.

As an executive search professional, MacDonald has over 10 years' experience helping organizations shape and develop their IT leadership capability.  He has worked for a number of the leading Fortune 500 companies across nearly every industry vertical, from banking and consumer goods to energy, retail and pharmaceuticals.  MacDonald has also written and contributed to numerous papers on the role of the CIO and the evolution of boardroom executives.

In addition to advising iRise's CEO, MacDonald will work closely with Ralph J. Szygenda, former global CIO of General Motors and Chairman of the iRise Executive Roundtable Series, to help bring a focus on CIO leadership and innovation to the Series.  

"Bryan has perhaps the most informed background in the world in understanding how CIOs must be transformative, strategic business partners to their companies," said Keeffe.  "Given the trend toward the 'consumerization' of IT, CIOs today are under unprecedented pressure to accelerate software development while improving the user experience.  Bryan's knowledge will be invaluable in helping CIOs leverage iRise and visualization to transform communication within the business and meet these new demands."

Prior to his position with Heidrick & Struggles, Macdonald spent two years working with the Chief Information Officer of a major energy company, helping to define a talent management strategy for a number of the company's emerging IT leaders.  His task involved working with top business schools including Harvard, MIT and Kellogg.

MacDonald recently co-authored an article for HBR along with Kevin Kelly, CEO of Heidrick & Struggles and Harvard Professor Boris Groysberg, describing the new route to the C-suite.

About iRise

iRise is the world leader in software visualization/design solutions that are changing the way enterprise applications are created.  Its visualization software reduces or altogether eliminates the written requirements that clog and complicate effective communication.  Instead, business analysts can now collaborate side-by-side with business people and developers, building working models that enable all stakeholders to experience, the look, feel and behavior of applications before coding begins.  iRise is dramatically shortening the development cycle and saving tens of millions of dollars for major companies including Chase, FedEx, General Motors, Manpower, UPS and hundreds of others.  Headquartered in El Segundo, California, iRise is backed by Morgan Stanley and Deutsche Bank, and has sales offices across North America and in London.  Visit www.irise.com.

iRise is a registered trademark of iRise. All other companies and products mentioned are trademarks and property of their respective owners.

SOURCE iRise