CIO to CEO: 56 Moving Up The Ladder - ' Mark Cameron, COO, VantageMed ' (
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MARK CAMERON
COO, VantageMed
Formerly:
CIO, VantageMed
How He's Done:
Cameron, 51, joined
VantageMed as CIO
in early 2005, and
three months later
was promoted to chief
operating officer. He
still oversees internal
information technology
at the health-care
software vendor, as well as product development
and customer services. It's a big job,
especially in a turnaround situation.
VantageMed had purchased 26 companies
from its inception in 1995 to 1999, "but
did a poor job of integrating them," Cameron
says. "There were a number of areas where
we were spending too much money. We had
to figure out how to best apply resources
and where we didn't need resources."
The "we" refers to Cameron and
VantageMed chief executive Steve Curd.
The two have worked together for 20 years,
starting in I.T. at American Airlines in the
1980s. They also teamed up in the late 1990s
at HealtheonWebMD, where Curd was COO
and Cameron oversaw technical services.
Three months after Curd took over as CEO of
VantageMed, he coaxed Cameron aboard.
Cameron and Curd combed
VantageMed's product line, looking to kill
unprofitable software and services. They
culled products built on older server technologies,
for example, and reduced the line
to Windows-only software. In 2005, the last
full fiscal year reported, gross margins on
software topped 63%, up from 49% in 2004.
Yet, VantageMed is still looking for its
first profitable year. "We took it on to turn
it around," Cameron says. "We've got
everything positioned properly. Now, we'll
do what we need to grow."
Next page: Dawn Lepore, CEO, Drugstore.com
Projects: Management 
