Viewing the current scene from the perspective of three general platforms — mainframe, UNIX-based and Windows-based — he quite early in his career at Chevy Chase Bank decided that the systems development disciplines were the glue that could link those platforms together. "I came up with a set of disciplines that were common across all three platforms, so while the skills were different — and maybe on Windows you have got to know C++ or maybe on UNIX you have got to know Java and maybe on the mainframe you have got to have COBOL — the disciplines were identical. The way we approach development and testing was absolutely identical. So we got a common process, even though the skills within each process were different."

He says his focus throughout the past decade — starting at a time when the term service-oriented architecture was unknown — was on building an infrastructure where applications and heterogeneous platforms could all communicate. That meant recruiting the best qualified staff for each platform then sending them to school on systems integration, supplementing their thorough understanding of their own platform with knowledge of remote procedure protocols to connect applications and make them talk to each other across different platforms.

"So we started building that and we built a common way of doing it across all platforms and sent the people to school, educated them, got them introduced to networking, got them introduced to databases, got them introduced to integration and over the years they've become pretty good at it," Spicer says.

They also love their jobs, it seems. Spicer says turnover in the IT department is just 5 percent, in part because, passionate about IT himself, he has tried to recruit people who are equally passionate and just as keen to learn.

"The projects we have today, even more so than 10 years ago, involve a lot of integration, and are very challenging and very interesting, and if they don't know something I'm sending them to school and they're having fun learning. If they do leave here, they are not leaving because they are not learning anything, and I try to always pay them very competitively so hopefully they're not leaving here for money unless somebody offers them something outrageous. And I try to have a really great work environment for them, so if they leave here it's because they're leaving the area.

"You know, I try to really focus on good compensation, really focus on training, really focus on really interesting and challenging projects that are hard to do, and the people that have a passion for this love projects like that.," he says.

As for the future, Spicer believes the CIO role can only grow in strategic importance. He reports directly to the chairman and says the role of IT will always be a key role in any bank.

"I think the role of the CIO is going to have to be a lot more strategic, a lot more aligned with the business units than it has ever been before. I have no problem doing this for the rest of my life. This is my vacation — I just happen to be one of those people who love doing this," he says.