– Tech transformation. In 1990, Walt Disney World didn’t have a centralized database of its millions of theme park visitors. Sheila Jordan, who joined the legacy entertainment company that year as a VP of marketing and sales finance, saw a moment for growth—Disney’s and her own. Identifying that business opportunity helped her become SVP of Destination Disney, where she brought a CRM, or Customer Relationship Management, system to the company.
Fifteen years of guest experience later, Jordan was ready for a change: “I’ve always had this desire to go work in Silicon Valley and deep in tech,” she remembers. She worked at Cisco for nine years before moving into the security space as CIO of Symantec. “Then it was time to think about applying all this experience to a multinational, global industrial supply chain,” she says.
No. 119 on the Fortune 500, Honeywell is a technology company with a sprawling catalogue of products: security software solutions, pressure sensors, barcode scanners, and chemical-resistant gloves, to name just a few. The company grew its revenue 5% to $38.5 billion in 2024. As chief digital technology officer, Jordan is behind a multi-year digital transformation plan as the business simplifies.
Meanwhile, she’s spearheading its adoption of AI. “There’s a technology that happens every five to seven years that fundamentally changes how we work, live, and play,” she says. She is particularly interested in agentic AI because it can be like “having a conversation with your best friend”—which is her experience of Amazon’s Alexa+.
It’s not just tech that has changed since Jordan entered the industry. There are also more women serving in CIO and CTO roles. “I love being the chief digital technology officer, but I’m also a girl, and I like jewelry and I like makeup,” she says. She says that Disney, Cisco, Semantic, and Honeywell have all allowed her to be herself. “I don’t have time to hide the fact that I’m female. So you have to pick the cultures of a company that will allow you to flourish without trying to change you too much.”
Looking ahead, Honeywell, a longtime “diversified conglomerate,” is preparing to break into three separate companies: automation, aerospace technologies, and advanced materials. The company has also in the past few years made a few acquisitions—like buying defense tech company CAES for approximately $1.9 billion—and divestitures—like selling its personal protective equipment business for $1.3 billion. Jordan brings the same eye she brought to Disney’s theme park data to these more complex changes: “It’s understanding where we want to go and what the growth opportunities are for us.”
Nina Ajemiannina.ajemian@fortune.com
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This story was originally featured on Fortune.com
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