Caroline Serfass CIO50 2009

Caroline Serfass was appointed CIO of European operations at pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly and Company in 2004 but has been at the company since 1990 - working in a variety of functions with roles ranging from internal audit manager to supply chain director - before becoming UK IT director in 2001.

Serfass is a member of Eli Lilly's European senior management team, playing a key role in business transformation and changing the profile of IT from service provider to business partner.

In recent years she has led a major transformation programme involving a regional/global structure being built around common processes, and essential services being outsourced, and last year Serfass took on additional responsibility for the IT delivery of the company's global CRM programme.

Serfass studied engineering at Ecole Centrale in France and has an MA in Robotics from Ecole Polytechnique de Montreal, Canada. She began her career as the first IT manager of a small mining company in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in 1988.