Growing up in rural Iowa didn’t stop Todd Finders from developing a love of technology. Now, as the Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer at Clayco, he reflects on how being raised in a small town helped him cultivate his sense of integrity and leadership. Listen today to find out why “competitive empathy” is Something Extra he believes every leader needs.
Bio: As Chief Information Officer, Todd is responsible for all aspects of technology and systems across Clayco – traditional IT functions (systems, infrastructure, and application delivery), CyberSecurity, Data Engineering and Analytics, as well as the Virtual Design and Construction team. Todd has led transformation efforts at Clayco, increasing the digitization of the business, enhancing the use of data for insight, and driving innovation on the jobsite.
Prior to joining Clayco in March of 2020, Todd spent 2+ years as Chief Information Officer of Barry-Wehmiller, a private, global manufacturing company. Todd was responsible for all aspects of information technology and systems across Barry-Wehmiller’s global footprint. As a member of the Executive Leadership Team, Todd applied his Emerson background to the broader transformation of Barry-Wehmiller.
During his time at Emerson, Todd progressed through numerous roles to eventually take on leadership IT positions at multiple locations. He has ample experience setting strategic direction and delivering operational excellence in support of complex and diverse business needs.
Todd has a bachelor’s degree from Iowa State University, and a Master of Business Administration from the University of Iowa.
Raised in a town of 350 people in Central Iowa, Todd’s small town roots have informed his journey. He is married to Mindy (31 years) and has 3 married boys and 3 grandchildren, with a 4th on the way. Todd and Mindy reside in the Greater St. Louis region.
Further Emerson background:
Todd began his career with Fisher Controls Intl., Inc. just one year prior to Emerson’s acquisition of Fisher. He held a variety of roles with Fisher until 2008 when he moved to the Emerson Corporate IT organization as the Director of Data Center Services. In the role, he oversaw the completion of Emerson’s Global Data Center in St. Louis and the Global Development and Recovery Data Center in Marshalltown. The data center shared service gave Todd experience running an internal business with full ownership of demand creation and cost containment. He led the data center team until his promotion to CIO for the Emerson Climate Technologies platform in late 2012.
When Emerson underwent strategic restructuring, Todd was appointed CIO for the newly formed Commercial and Residential Solutions platform in February of 2016. The restructuring made Commercial and Residential one of only two platforms, and it represented roughly $6B of Emerson’s $16B in annual revenue and included the Emerson Climate Technologies businesses as well as 6 more Emerson entities.
Finders was recognized by Today’s Facility Manager magazine as the Facility Executive Of The Year in 2011. He was also awarded a 2016 Enterprise CIO Leadership Award by the InfoTech Research Group. He was also part of the Emerson Leadership Program – a development program for Emerson’s top leaders.
Todd’s Something Extra: “I think for leaders the key is competitive empathy. People think of empathy as weakness, but a drive to succeed needs to be surrounded by empathy and humility. When you have competitive empathy, you have teams that win together.”
