HOFFMAN ESTATES, Ill. -

With a background in the banking, financial services, investment and medical industries, CDK Global welcomed its new chief information officer on Thursday.

Taking on the role of CIO for the automotive retail technology company is Kirsten Garen who also will also be a member of CDK’s executive leadership team.

In her role, the company said Garen will execute the IT strategy to drive innovation and operational excellence in support of the customers, partners and employees of CDK.

”Kirsten’s ability to align operational execution and technology transformation with business outcomes make her the perfect fit to accelerate our vision to modernize, transform and support a digital future for our customers and employees,” said Mahesh Shah, executive vice president and chief product and technology officer at CDK.

“She prioritizes developing talent and team collaboration that matches well with our core values and corporate culture,” Shah continued in a news release.

Possessing more than 30 years of experience in technology and operations roles, CDK highlighted that Garen brings a diverse experience in driving transformations in customer-centric, growing organizations.

Most recently, Garen served as CIO for Delta Dental of California where she led all technology functions. Prior to Delta Dental, she served as CIO for Bank of the West. Garen has also held senior executive technology and operations roles at VISA, Charles Schwab and Bankers Trust.

“I’m delighted to join CDK. I see tremendous opportunity for enterprise collaboration to drive efficiency and scale that will allow us to grow and work with our clients to transform their businesses,” Garen said.

“We will focus on streamlining and optimizing the work of our teams to allow them to innovate and create new client solutions,” she went on to say.