From Bottleneck to Accelerator: How NiSource’s CIO Repositioned IT as a Growth Engine

November 27, 2025

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About the Guest

Charles "Waco" Bankston

Chief Information Officer at NiSource

Waco Bankston is the CIO of NiSource, where he leads enterprise technology strategy across a $6B regulated utility. He’s driving a multi-year transformation to modernize legacy systems, reduce vendor complexity, and reposition IT as a business enabler. His leadership draws on prior experience in nuclear energy and telecom, where he led high-stakes, high-speed transformations across regulated and competitive sectors.

Episode Overview

What does it take to transform IT from a bottleneck into a business accelerator?

In this episode, Waco Bankston, Chief Information Officer at NiSource, shares how he’s repositioning the IT organization to support growth, enable speed, and shift decades of technical and cultural inertia. Leading a 6.5-year enterprise transformation effort, Waco discusses the discipline required to modernize legacy systems while instilling a new execution culture.

Key insights from the episode include: