For the past 14 years, Martha Poulter ’92 MBA has steadily climbed through the ranks of General Electric, successfully handling many roles and responsibilities along the way.
Her efforts have not gone unnoticed.
In July, Poulter was named vice president and chief information officer at GE Capital, in Norwalk, Conn. Her role is to shape the company’s information technology strategy, as well as to integrate the best of GE Capital’s IT applications, infrastructure and resources.
“I am responsible for driving the global digitization strategy and delivering competitive differentiation through technology,” says Poulter, who leads 3,500 IT professionals across the Americas, Europe, the Middle East and Asia.
While technology is changing almost daily, Poulter espouses a solid balance between creating and maintaining a solid IT environment for her company while trying to take advantage of the newest industry innovations.
“Operational excellence of our technology portfolio is of paramount importance, she says. “That said, we also invest for the future to make sure that the business continues to be competitively advantaged.”
Her greatest enjoyment comes from the personal connections she makes—watching the people she mentors develop and succeed, especially when they push beyond boundaries to accomplish their goals.
“Influencing people in our daily work requires an incredible amount of self-awareness to style differences, ability to adapt in approach and ultimately genuine interest in learning about people,” she says.
Poulter credits UNH for giving her the tools to be successful. “I think it was valuable for me to gain the business education and case study experience through the MBA program,” she says. “This has provided perspective about the financial services industry from the vantage point of finance, marketing and business development. For me, UNH had a great program of study that allowed me to balance the demands of work and school concurrently.”
Poulter’s MBA experience also provided another dividend: her husband, Glen Poulter, ’00 MBA, whom she met in her very first class. The couple has two children and lives in Newtown, Conn.
Posted Fall 2010
