"How to become the CEO of IT?" asks Ken McGee, vice president and Gartner fellow. "Hire an IT CFO. For decades, IT associates have been empowered to negotiate contracts [without] being formally trained to do so."

Safeway in the US has one, as do Pepsi and DHL Logistics in Europe. And the job has emerged as a key position at investment banks such as Citigroup, ING and UBS. "Chief financial officer for IT" or "IT CFO" is a role that has long been championed by analyst group Gartner, but only in recent months has the title started to appear with some frequency on recruitment sites and on the BlackBerrys of headhunters.

What does a CFO for IT do for the organisation? The job spec includes tracking and actively managing IT spend, monitoring the running costs of hundreds of projects, handling contract negotiations with suppliers, and planning future budgets - all areas where Gartner suggests CIOs have questionable expertise. But CFOs for IT also perform a diplomatic role. In much the same way as business relationship managers bridge the gap between the business and IT, the IT CFO is the go-between who diffuses that often tetchy relationship between IT and finance.

Here's a list of some leading IT CFOs - click on the names to link to their profiles:

• Michael Catapano: SVP, head of Global IT Finance at Marsh Inc
  
  
• Christophe Delvaux: CFO IT at ING
  
  
• David Glasberg: IT CFO at JP Morgan Chase
  
  
• Stuart Hahn: Global IT CFO at ICAP Plc
  
  
• Wilhelm Hitz: IT CFO, Europe at PepsiCo
  
  
• Mark Lucas: EMEA CFO, IT division at Citigroup
  
  
• Jeffrey Nachowitz: Managing director and CFO of IT at Citigroup
  
  
• Derek Roberts: CFO - IT Division at COLT Telecom
  
  
• Frank Schueler: CFO IT at DHL Logistics
  
  
• Patricia Takahashi: CFO - IT and VP - IT Prof Services at Safeway
  
  
• Joe Anichebe: Executive Director, Global IT CFO at UBS