Education, Leadership & Affiliations
- Degree in Business with major in Accounting, minor in Finance, University of Idaho
- Past Board Participation: Society for Information Management (SIM), the CIO Forum of the Technology Association of Oregon (TAO), Quest JD Edwards Global User Group, the Operations and Technology major at the Pamplin School of Business at the University of Portland and been on local company boards SourcePanel, Gear Up Sports and IGNW
- Current Board Participation: Shelter Products and a not-for-profit vacation property the Sawtelle Club.
- Volunteer with Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, Providence Cancer Center, Meals on Wheels for Kids, and The University of Idaho.
- Honored as one of ComputerWorld’s Premier 100 IT Leaders for 2003.
Professional Biography
Fred Pond is a semi-retired former business executive and CIO. He currently works part time as a CIO consultant and advisor; as a Board of Directors member for companies and non-profits; and facilitates a leadership development program (RLF), a large cap CIO group (APC), and an Executive Coaching program for the Society for Information Management (SIM).
Fred retired (February 2017) from his Vice President and Chief Information Officer role at Columbia Sportswear Company, the Oregon based designer, developer, distributor and retailer of apparel and footwear for the outdoor and active consumer with revenues of more than $3B, 6,000 employees, and operations and product sales in more than 100 countries across the globe. In this role, Fred was responsible for Global Information Services (GIS) and Technology for the company with a team of over 300 people spread across more than a dozen countries, and a capital and operating budget of more than $75M annually.
Before Columbia, Fred worked from 2006 to 2010 as Chief Information Officer of North Pacific Group (NPG) a $1.3B Portland based distributor of lumber, building materials, and food products. In his role at NPG, he led a successful and complete rebuilding of the company’s technology organization and infrastructure.
Prior to NPG, Fred worked from 1997 to 2005 leading the Information Systems and Technology organization for the Schnitzer Group of Companies; a Portland, Oregon based group of six independent but related companies made up of: Schnitzer Steel Industries (self-service auto parts, recycled metals and steel manufacturing), Schnitzer Investment Co. & Schnitzer Northwest (real estate development and management), Lasco Shipping & Liberty Maritime (ocean shipping and freighter owner and operators), and Island Equipment Company (real estate and gas products manufacturing & distribution). These diverse businesses comprised approximately $1.2B in annual revenues and $1.8B in assets. In his role he and his staff completely replaced the majority of all technology infrastructure, hardware, networking, and application software & systems throughout these six businesses.
Prior to the Schnitzer Group, Fred worked from 1990 to 1997 in various roles including Leading the Information Systems and Technology Organization for Stevedoring Services of America (SSA), now SSA Marine/Tideworks Technology. SSA is one of the largest shipping terminal operating, cargo logistics companies and technology providers in the U.S. and also have significant operations in ports in more than 40 locations globally. In his role at SSA, he was responsible for significant improvements in technology infrastructure and development of complex custom cargo management and cargo logistics systems that gave SSA major competitive advantage, and to this day continues to differentiate their business from their competitors under the Tideworks Technology brand.
Prior to his 27 years of IT management in industry, Fred worked as an accountant and consultant with the Arthur Andersen & Co. and then Andersen Consulting for more than 7 years. His roles there included progressive responsibilities from staff accountant and consultant to consulting manager with responsibility for multiple clients and engagements mostly in the manufacturing and distribution industry sectors.
Fred has been married to Cherie for 36 years, they have two grown children Natalie and Allison. They all love travel, sports, outdoors and getting together with family.
