5 Ways Leaders Can Champion Technology Without Being an Expert
Insights
September 11, 2025
About the Author
Anthony Cartolaro, Jr.
Vice President
Tony Cartolaro brings more than 25 years of senior technology leadership to Weidenhammer, where he heads the team delivering managed services, cloud, and infrastructure solutions tailored to each client’s business. Tony helps organizations modernize with intent. Often working with manufacturing, financial and fintech organizations, healthcare, education, and non-profits, his clients often realize a return on their technology investment in the form of improved client and team member experience and from driving competitive advantage.
Over his career, Tony has advised clients on strategic technology planning, infrastructure design, IT service delivery, governance and process improvement, ERP/CRM selection, mobile workforce enablement, and overall senior IT leadership. He is well-versed in the compliance and regulatory frameworks that shape today’s technology decisions, including HIPAA, FERPA, GLBA, CIPA, GDPR, and NIST.
Beyond his role at Weidenhammer, Tony is active in the community. He serves as the President the Board of Directors of Valley Day School, a K-12 school supporting students with cognitive and emotional disabilities through brain-based, trauma-informed care. Additionally, Tony is the Board Member for Service and Access Management, Inc, a non-profit organization who focuses on providing accessible and much-needed human services to folks living in PA and NJ. Tony is also active in the International Society for Transforming Education (ISTE).
Leaders who step into this role with clarity and curiosity are often the ones who unearth the greatest value—not just from their technology, but from their teams.
Tech Decisions Are Business Decisions. Own Them.
Technology is infrastructure, intelligence, and enablement all rolled into one. It shapes everything from how customers engage with your brand to how your teams collaborate, how fast you can adapt, and how secure your data is. If those aren’t core business issues, what is?
Still, many leaders treat technology like a black box: something handled by IT, scoped and delivered with minimal involvement from the rest of the C-suite. That disconnect leads to common problems: misaligned solutions, unused features, or worse, tools in search of a problem.
The truth is, when technology decisions are left to happen in isolation, they often miss the mark. Strategy must drive systems, not the other way around. And that means leaders at every level need to take ownership of the alignment between business goals and technical execution.
