Name: Wendy Cebula
Title: Chief operating officer
Organization: VistaPrint Ltd.
Age: 36
Industry: Retail trade
30-second biography: Cebula didn’t take the usual path through technology avenues to get to the COO role by 35. She originally worked at VistaPrint in the marketing and analytics department but was able to develop a niche by leveraging data for making key business decisions. Seven years later, the company has more than 8 million customers and is processing 18,000 orders per day, all taken and designed online.
Current project: “My team and I have installed more energy-efficient servers and improved utilization in VistaPrint’s primary data center in Bermuda, steps that have reduced energy usage by 75 percent. As a result, the company expects to save nearly half a million dollars over three years and estimates that it will reduce its output of carbon dioxide emissions by several hundred tons in this year alone. We also decided to locate a new data center in Canada, where hydroelectric power — a renewable energy source — keeps power costs stable and has potential to lower VistaPrint’s electricity bills by another 70 percent.”
The technology you can’t live without: “My pivot tables! Also, we have custom-built reporting and monitoring systems that give me a minute-to-minute view of how our IT systems and are business are doing.”
The best thing about today’s technology: “Productivity improvements.”
The worst thing about today’s technology: “Its impact on global energy usage.”
Technology can …”Help solve critical business problems.”
Book most recently on your nightstand: Quality Is Free, by Philip B. Crosby