Valassis, one of the nation's leading media and marketing services companies, announced today that Steve Carrington, Valassis Chief Information Officer, has been honored in Crain's Detroit Business Chief Information Officer (CIO) award program, recognizing the top technology executives in metro Detroit. Carrington was chosen for driving revenue and efficiencies.

"I am honored to be a part of Crain's inaugural CIO recognition program," said Carrington. "This award recognizes the hard work of the entire Valassis organization in achieving great results. Our Information Technology (IT) associates are the real heroes who make these great things happen. I am privileged to lead a great team of people and be a part of a great organization." 

Under Carrington's leadership, Valassis has been the recipient of three innovation awards over the last two years, including InformationWeek's top 500 Innovators award in 2010 and 2011. In addition, Valassis was recently recognized by Alteryx, an IT and services company, as its most innovative customer in the use of their technology. Valassis has created more capabilities in-house and achieved more results, while simultaneously reducing its IT spend by 46% over the last four years.

Carrington has designed a highly effective organizational structure, created a high performing technology team, and utilized third-party providers more effectively than in the past. His team reduced cycle time from six weeks to less than five days for one of the company's most complex and transaction-intensive processes, which directly impacted revenue. The team has completed over 20 major projects in 2011 with a remarkable 94% success rate, compared to an estimated industry average of 35% success rate. Success was measured on meeting deadlines, adhering to budget and delivering the ROI identified at the beginning of each project.

"Steve recognizes the critical role technology plays in driving our business," said Rob Mason, ValassisPresident and Chief Executive Officer. "He's a collaborative leader who focuses on ideas, speed and building strong relationships based on trust and shared results."

This recognition meets a significant career objective Carrington had to achieve the CIO role for a major company, which brought him to Valassis almost five years ago. Carrington has 25 years of industry experience and has led the transformation of IT organizations into process-oriented, award-winning centers of excellence. Carrington has led the IT integration of major acquisitions for two large corporations as well as the global ERP implementations on four continents. Having worked in all parts of the world, Carrington has an appreciation and sensitivity to different cultures and values the great ideas that a diverse organization brings.

Carrington graduated with a business degree from Western Kentucky University and a Master's in Business Administration degree with a focus in international business from Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. His career before joining Valassis in 2008 included several senior IT leadership roles atChemtura and Ingersoll Rand.

Carrington will speak at Crain's inaugural CIO "Transformations in Process: Innovation and the CIO" panel at the CIO awards event on Thursday, Sept. 27 at The Filmore in Detroit. For more information on the award, please visit www.crainsdetroit.com/cio.