Dear Vanderbilt Faculty and Staff:
I am excited to personally share the news of an information technology transformation initiative underway at Vanderbilt. Increasingly, information technology is knitted into the very fabric of the teaching, discovery and service that are core to our mission. The goal of this initiative is developing and building a world-class, outstanding information technology infrastructure at Vanderbilt to support that mission and enhance our ability to meet our shared goals and aspirations in the short-term and in the future.
A key component of this initiative is building a structure to support the work of the outstanding IT professionals at every level of Vanderbilt. Therefore, we are launching a search for a chief information officer to guide the future of technology at our university. This new position will be an integral member of the senior management team and will report directly to me. Vice Chancellor for Administration Jerry Fife, Vice Chancellor for Finance and Chief Financial Officer Brett Sweet and Associate Vice Chancellor for Health Affairs and Chief Administrative Officer John Manning will collectively and collaboratively serve as interim CIO while the search is executed.
The Vanderbilt community’s input and participation are vital to the success of this initiative. We have already reached out to many groups at Vanderbilt to solicit input, and we have interviewed over 100 faculty and staff, held workshops with your IT school leaders, conducted focus groups with key users, analyzed IT services spending and surveyed many individuals. Thank you for all of your thoughts and input to date; we will continue soliciting feedback on an ongoing basis. To assist us in achieving our goals, the university has engaged Bain & Company on a consultant basis.
Over the next several months, we will also be kicking off a series of shorter-term projects to bring immediate benefits to your IT experience. Please visit the website,vanderbilt.edu/it-transform, to learn more. You can also provide input on the project and sign up to receive updates via email.
The addition of a chief information officer and advancements in our information technology initiative add strength to our strategic plan and exciting opportunities to meet our mission of education, research, and discovery using dynamic methods.
Sincerely,
Nicholas S. Zeppos
Chancellor