Managing: Alejandro Mainetto directs Disney’s enterprise IT development

“My team exists to deliver great solutions for our 130,000 employees globally, and to support them in their technology needs,” Mainetto explains

Alejandro Mainetto: from Mickey’s Checkbook to global e-learning.

Alejandro Mainetto leads the team that designs, builds, delivers and maintains software business systems for corporate and enterprise areas of the Walt Disney Co (Burbank, CA). Based in Los Angeles, Mainetto is Disney’s director of corporate and enterprise IT application development.

“I truly enjoy being responsible for critical, highly visible and important projects that can impact the company globally,” Mainetto says. “It doesn’t matter how complex the project or program may seem, I enjoy the challenge.”

Mainetto has been with Disney since 2002. He oversees two major areas. One focuses on advising and working with corporate business functions of the company, like finance, HR, IT marketing and legal.

The other is involved with enterprise programs that touch every employee in the company, like its intranet, online training and talent recruiting. He works with all segments and business units in this part of his job. Mainetto has six direct reports, and they oversee seventy-five to a hundred staffers.

“Delivering great solutions”
Disney is organized into seven major business segments: corporate; theme parks and resorts; media networks, including ABC and ESPN; Disney Consumer Products; Walt Disney Studios; Walt Disney International; and the Walt Disney Internet group. In many cases there are several business units within a segment.

“My team exists to deliver great solutions for our 130,000 employees globally, and to support them in their technology needs. We work on a large number of concurrent new initiatives during the year and maintain a very large and complex portfolio of more than 250 technology systems for corporate and enterprise,” Mainetto reports.

Projects run the gamut from “Mickey’s Checkbook,” a financial system for one business segment, to a global company-wide Web-based e-learning program, and a talent acquisition system where employees and external candidates can apply for posted jobs.

Personally involved
“Theoretically I’m the person who directs everything, but there are a lot of occasions where I get personally involved,” Mainetto says. “If it’s a high-level, high-visibility project or issue, I’m probably there with the team. In some cases I work closely with project managers on day-to-day resolution of issues.”

He visits his Orlando, FL team every month, and keeps up with teams in Anaheim and Burbank, CA. He also takes in many conferences on technology updates. As a manager, he loves seeing people succeed and grow professionally.

His biggest challenge is finding and keeping the right people. “There’s a tremendous war for talent out there and it’s not getting easier,” he declares.

Starting out
Mainetto was born in Peru, where his parents bought him his first computer when he was eight. When he was fourteen his family came to the U.S. and settled in New York, NY.

In 1994 he received his BSME from Polytechnic University (Brooklyn, NY), but he never really practiced mechanical engineering. He started out in software development and IT project management.

His first job was with Consolidated Edison, NYC’s big utility. He was in project management and engineering services, which meant computer systems. After a few years he moved to Bell Atlantic (now Verizon, New York, NY) as a project manager in engineering and network planning. While holding down that post he also attended Polytechnic full time, and completed an MS in technology management in 1998.

IBM and onward
Mainetto moved to IBM Global Services (New York, NY) as a project manager for business innovation services. The businesses were mostly in telecom and media: Verizon, Universal Music Group and e-Sim. He also helped the local New York City government.

In 2000 Mainetto became a senior project manager for Proxicom in New York. Like his IBM work, the new job was about Web-based solutions for major companies. But at Proxicom, a smaller company than IBM with fewer resources, Mainetto got much more personally involved.

In a year he went on to senior engagement manager at Iconixx, Inc (New York, NY). He handled clients in both financial services and energy: Citigroup, Allegheny Energy, and a Latin American consumer Internet banking project that lasted nine months and required travel to Brazil.

“I enjoyed that work, speaking Portuguese and Spanish with clients and users and helping to increase technology advancements in Latin American countries,” Mainetto says.

The Disney magic
Then he joined Disney. “It happened magically,” Mainetto recalls with a laugh. “While I was doing consulting work with media and entertainment companies in the past, it had crossed my mind that it would be great to work for Disney.”

His first job was as IT manager at the Orlando HQ. He managed the intranet group that supports theme parks and resorts.

His team designed, built, delivered and maintained all business apps and systems accessible through the intranet, like labor management, HR, research and communications. “We developed some of the labor and HR systems that theme park and attraction employees use in their daily work,” Mainetto says. He moved to his current position in 2006.

Disney, Mainetto reflects, “is a great company to work for, a brand you can be proud of, a great employer providing world-class benefits, and a place where you can find a lot of different career opportunities.”

He thinks project management is a rewarding career but very demanding. “You are always in the spotlight!”

Kicking off HITEC
Mainetto is eager to bring more Hispanics into the IT field, as well as to nurture and encourage current Hispanic IT pros. He’s a board member and chair of the fundraising committee for the Hispanic IT Executive Council (HITEC, www.hitecglobal.org, Detroit, MI), which focuses on increasing the number of Hispanic execs in technology fields.

“We’re in the process of kicking off a great mentoring program,” he notes. “I am currently looking for more Hispanic managers interested in being mentees.” Mainetto is also a member of the National Society of Hispanic MBAs (NSHMBA) and the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE).

“The number of Hispanics in IT is very low,” he says. “This is one reason why I am such a big proponent and backer of these organizations.

“I would like to see more Hispanic managers find mentors, and learn how to break the first glass ceiling to get into executive ranks, and then go on to C-level jobs.”