Milwaukee-based water heater manufacturer A.O. Smith has hired Chris Howe as the company’s new senior vice president and chief digital information officer.

Howe replaces Melissa Scheppele, who was A.O. Smith’s chief information officer.

Following her departure, A.O. Smith re-imagined the role and changed the title to chief digital information officer. This changes reflects the company’s ongoing digital transformation, according to a Friday announcement.

“We made the change from CIO to CDIO intentionally to reflect our focus of selecting a leader with the experience to oversee our current technology operations and the vision to drive digital innovation across the company,” said A.O. Smith president and chief executive officer Steve Shafer.

Howe was most recently CEO and co-founder of Minneapolis-based Rise and Shift, a boutique cloud transformation and generative AI consulting firm.

Howe’s role at A.O. Smith will encompass all traditional CIO responsibilities while emphasizing the development of new digital strategies to support the business.

As CDIO, Howe will lead organization-wide digital transformation initiatives, drive digital innovation and emerging technology adoption, and implement advanced data analytics and AI capabilities, while fostering digital culture and organizational change.

“Chris is the transformational leader we need to leverage the technologies we have invested in today and help us invest in new technologies of the future to drive greater value realization,” said Shafer.

Since starting Rise and Shift in 2023, Howe and his team have been leading providers of generative AI solutions, commercializing a new, widget-based, GenAI platform and partnering with clients to deliver agentic AI transformation solutions.

Through a collaboration with Amazon Web Services and global technology partners, Howe and his team led several cloud transformation initiatives with clients across the globe, including a cloud-native digital manufacturing solution for a global food company.