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(Previously Ranked 11) Responsible for processing and marketing systems and other technologies for Boston-based Fidelity Investments’ personal and workplace investing group since 2008, Stephen Scullen has a singular obsession: systems integration.

Privately held Fidelity has a reputation for investing heavily in technology regardless of economic conditions, and the Great Recession was no exception, says Scullen. The 56-year-old has mapped out a five-year plan to unify the disparate parts of the firm’s infrastructure so that brokerage, mutual fund or 401(k) clients will more easily view themselves as “a Fidelity customer, not a customer of a particular product,” he says. The project is also expected to yield simpler and more effective processes across the board.

Current priorities include improving customer service and cost efficiencies. A 14-year veteran of the firm, formerly president of Fidelity eBusiness and CIO of Fidelity Investments Institutional Services Co., Scullen stresses that technology development is “cooperative,” rather than a case of his group “filling orders” after business units “do strategy.”

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