He didnt start out as geek, nor did he start out at MetLife. He graduated from Bridgewater State College, in Massachusetts, in 1974, with a BA degree in physiological psychology. To pay the bills while his wife got her masters degree, Candito decided to capitalize on his science background by getting a job as a quality assurance analyst at New England Financial. I really liked it, he remembers, pointing out that QA is a very rigorous profession when done right. He also got to participate in forming an independent testing organization, then a new concept in the insurance and financial services field.

I didnt learn the technology, he says regarding his experience in those early days. I learned the business. A QA person spends literally hundreds of hours with the IT staff, learning how all the systems interact with one another. The first time the IT folks asked him to join their operation, he passed on it. In 1979, when they asked again, he reconsidered. I went home and told my wife, You know, I really think computers are going to be big, he recalls, laughing about it. He decided to make the switch, joined the IT side of the house, and began working with the systems during the day and teaching himself programming languages at night. He also started moving up the ranks, assuming more managerial responsibilities.

In 1996, New England Financial was acquired by MetLife, and Candito began learning about IT and IT management in a much larger company. A former MetLife CIO, Robert McKinney, took Candito under his wing and worked with him until his death a few years later. He really taught me what I needed to know to be a CIO of a major financial institution, he says.

Along the way, Candito says he had to make a major decisionwhich of three different paths to follow. One was to be an individual contributor, possibly in a quasi-consulting role, using all the insurance and systems knowledge he learned from his quality assurance days. Another was to go into the computer science part of the business, which really appealed to him. The third was to assume a leadership and management role in the business. Nobody can do all three, his mentor had told him. You might be able to major in one and minor in another, but youve got to choose.

Candito decided to take the leadership and management path and has had an extremely successful career as a result. But, Ive never lost my love of computer science. A true automated executive.