James Burdiss Named Chief Information Officer for Affinia

Affinia Group has named James Burdiss vice president and chief information officer. A 30-year information systems and management executive, Burdiss will report to Terry McCormack, president and chief executive officer of Affinia Group. Burdiss comes to Affinia from Smurfit Stone Container Corp. of Chicago (SSCC), a Fortune 250 company that is North America’s largest producer of corrugated packing. While with SSCC, Burdiss served as senior vice president and chief information officer.

ANN ARBOR, MI – Affinia Group has named James Burdiss vice president and chief information officer. A 30-year information systems and management executive, Burdiss will report to Terry McCormack, president and chief executive officer of Affinia Group.

Burdiss comes to Affinia from Smurfit Stone Container Corp. of Chicago (SSCC), a Fortune 250 company that is North America’s largest producer of corrugated packing. While with SSCC, Burdiss served as senior vice president and chief information officer.

“Jim brings an incredibly diverse background to Affinia Group that includes strategic IT management, team building, business process redesign, sales and marketing and technical services,” McCormack said. “With Jim we have a proven leader who will assure that our IT capabilities, work processes and information flows fully support our global growth strategy. The addition of Jim to our executive committee is another vital step in Affinia’s business transformation.”

Burdiss’ career has included service as a principal with Computer Science Corp., a senior manager of the Performance Improvement Group for Ernst & Young and chief of operations for the Defense Contract Administration Management Office (DCMAO), St. Louis, MO. He also served in the U.S. Navy for 26 years.

Burdiss was selected as one of the top 100 CIOs in the U.S. by CIO Magazine in 2002, 2003 and 2005. From 2002 through 2006 he was recognized by Industry Week magazine for leading IT Departments that were in the top 500 in the nation. He is a contributing author to several IT publications and co-author of the book “Leading Technical Teams” published by Aspatore Books in 2005.

Burdiss earned a bachelor of science degree in industrial technology from Southern Illinois University and a masters of business administration degree from the Darden Graduate School of Business Administration at the University of Virginia. He and his wife, Michelle, will relocate to the Ann Arbor, MI, area in the near future.

For more information about Affinia, visit: http://www.affiniagroup.com.