CHAPTER ONE

THE NEW CIO

Friday, March 23, 11:52 a.m.…

Jim Barton sat motionless in a blue leather chair, one of several positioned around an elegant glass table at one end of the CEO’s expansive corner office. At the other end, Carl Williams stood looking out a window. The silence grew long. Finally, Williams turned to look at Barton.

“Speechless” was not a word most people could imagine applying to Jim Barton. His energy and outspokenness as head of the Loan Operations department made him one of IVK’s most dynamic executives, a key player and a likely CEO someday—of a different company, if not this one.

But the news Williams had conveyed moments before had left Barton silent, dumbfounded.

A few minutes earlier Barton had rushed to William’s ...

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