Butch Leonardson

Butch Leonardson
Information Technology Advisor

Butch Leonardson has 40 years in information technology (IT) leadership. His initial 12 years in the profession was in strategic IT consulting and large-scale systems implementation. He served as a practice director for the financial services industry with Accenture. From 1988 to 1996, he was the Associate Executive Director and CIO for Children’s Hospital and Regional Medical Center in Seattle. He then spent two years at Harvard Medical School exploring a pilot program for a global disease management system.

In 1999 he was appointed the SVP & CIO for BECU. During his 15 years there, his team was recognized as thought leaders in business intelligence, systems integration, project management, innovation around the member experience and strategic IT direction. Since retiring he has been involved in helping to build IT Leadership capabilities for organizations.

Butch earned a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in business administration at Seattle University. He served on the Board of Regents for many years and was board chair for the 2012-2014 term. He also has served on the Board of Trustees at Franciscan Highline Medical Center. During both the Governor Gregoire and Governor Inslee administrations, Butch served on the Technology Services Board in the Office of the CIO. He was recently re-appointed for another term.

In 2014 he was recognized as an Elite 8 Banking IT executive by the Bank Systems & Technology journal. He is currently a facilitator for the Regional Leadership Forum, a national program focused on developing leadership capabilities for IT professionals. He has led four IT leadership schools for CUES. Most recently, he has been asked to advise the investment industry on trends in banking software and services.