Profile

Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer, Wolters Kluwer Financial Services

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By Katie Ford

“At Thomson, I focused solely on executing the technology agenda,” he says. “I'd say 60 percent of my time here at Wolters Kluwer is spent on business management issues. Without the marketing, accounting, and financial knowledge I gained from this last degree, I'd be ill equipped to do this job.”

Words of advice

With three degrees under his belt—all of them earned while working full time—Levine knows a thing or two about mixing work and school. He offers the following words of wisdom:

• Opt for a program that means something in your industry. “Know how the program fits into your industry: is it well regarded?” Levine says. “Stick to the trusted core programs that anyone in any industry will recognize.”
• Research the demographics of the people who enroll in the program in terms of their work histories and experience levels. “You want to be in a classroom with peers you can learn from,” he says. “It's just as much about networking as it is about learning.”
• Accept that something has to give. “Be prepared to sacrifice a part of your current life,” he says. “You can't give 100 percent to everything and everyone.”
• Communicate with your family, supervisors, and coworkers and make sure you have their support. “If you don't get that backing before you go in, you're probably not being intellectually honest about what you're signing up for,” he says.

So is there a doctoral degree in Levine's future? He laughs at the thought. Apparently, this CTO has seen enough of the classroom.

“Someone asked me the other day if I'd go after my PhD, and I told them without hesitation: I am 50 years old and I am done!”

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