Low Memorial Library Rotunda
Columbia University
Monday, April 28, 2014
Fellow Emeritus
IBM
Nick Donofrio is a 44–year IBM veteran who led IBM’s technology and innovation strategies from 1997 until his retirement in October 2008. He also was vice chairman of the IBM International Foundation and chairman of the Board of Governors for the IBM Academy of Technology. Mr. Donofrio’s most recent responsibilities included IBM Research, Governmental Programs, Technical Support & Quality, Corporate Community Relations, as well as Environmental Health & Product Safety. Also reporting to Mr. Donofrio were the senior executives responsible for IBM’s enterprise on demand transformation. In addition to that strategic business mission, Mr. Donofrio led the development and retention of IBM’s technical population and enriched that community with a diversity of culture and thought. In 2008 IBM Chairman Sam Palmisano elected Nick IBM Fellow, the company’s highest technical honor.
Mr. Donofrio joined IBM as a college co–op student in 1964 and worked on the memory technology for the legendary IBM System/360 mainframe computing system. After being hired full time at IBM in 1967, he spent the early part of his career in integrated circuit and chip development as a designer of logic and memory chips. He held numerous technical management positions and, later, executive positions in several of IBM’s product divisions. He has led many of IBM’s major development and manufacturing teams – from semiconductor and storage technologies, to microprocessors and personal computers, to IBM’s entire family of servers.
He earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 1967 and a Master of Science in the same discipline from Syracuse University in 1971. In 1999 he was awarded an honorary doctorate in Engineering from Polytechnic University, in 2002 he received an honorary doctorate in Sciences from the University of Warwick in England, in 2005 he was awarded an honorary doctorate in Technology from Marist College and in 2006 he received an honorary doctorate in Sciences from the University of Edinburgh in Scotland. Pace University awarded him an honorary doctorate in Sciences in 2009 and the National University of Ireland, Maynooth awarded him an honorary doctorate in Sciences in 2010.
Mr. Donofrio is focused sharply on advancing education, employment and career opportunities for underrepresented minorities and women. He served for many years on the Board of Directors for the National Action Council for Minorities in Engineering (NACME) and was NACME’s Board chair from 1997 through 2002. He also served for several years on the Board of Directors for INROADS, a non–profit organization focused on the training and development of talented minority youth for professional careers in business and industry. He presently is co–chair of the New York Hall of Science.
In 2005, Mr. Donofrio was appointed by the U.S. Department of Education to serve on the Commission on the Future of Higher Education, a 20–member delegation of business and university leaders charged with developing a new national strategy for post–secondary education that will meet the needs of Americas diverse population and also address the economic and workforce needs of the country’s future.
He is the holder of seven technology patents and is a member of numerous technical and science honor societies. He is a Fellow of the Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers, a Fellow of the UK–based Royal Academy of Engineering, a member of the US–based National Academy of Engineering, a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a member of the Board of Directors for the Bank of New York/Mellon, a member of the Republic of China’s Science and Technology Advisory Group Board, a member of the Board of Trustees at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, a member of the Board of Directors of Liberty Mutual, a member of the Board of Directors of AMD, a member of the Board of Managers of the Delphi Company, a member of the Board of Trustees of The MITRE Corporation and a Senior Fellow of the Kauffman Foundation. In 2010, Mr. Donofrio became a member of the U. S. Secretary of Energy’s Advisory Board (SEAB).
Founder & CEO
OnCorps
Bob is the founder and chief executive officer of OnCorps, an Andreessen Horowitz backed startup focused on real-time collaborative data science. He is the retired chief technology strategist for Accenture. In this role, he served as the chief strategist for the firm’s $11 billion global software, systems integration, and technology consulting business. At Accenture, Bob led the firm’s entry into software-as-a-service, analytics, and open sourcing and helped cultivate the firm’s technology presence in China. He was responsible for the mergers and acquisitions of all technology businesses for Accenture. Bob led the firm’s Horizon Strategy technology group which provided the board of directors a long-range plan for technology business growth. Bob also created Accenture’s alliances with the founders of Salesforce.com and Workday during their early formation stages.
Prior to Accenture, Bob was a group president at Perot Systems, reporting to Ross Perot, where he helped take the company public. At Perot Systems, Bob led new business growth efforts in electronic commerce and business process outsourcing. Bob was also a managing director and executive committee member of CSC Index, an IT strategy consultancy founded by several MIT professors.
Bob also runs a venture fund seeded by Accenture management which focuses on early stage technology and cloud companies. He played a key role in founding and funding SkySQL, with the founders of MySQL, which is a leader in open source cloud databases now funded by Intel Capital. Bob was an investor in several successfully acquired companies including: Memento Security (acquired by NYSE: FIS), CloudBlue (acquired by Ingram Micro), and Open Logic (acquired by Rogue Wave). Bob is also an investor and advisor to Veracode, a leader in cloud security, and an independent director in M-Files which is a leader in document management software for regulated industries.
Bob is an advisory board member for the Technology Center at the Harvard Kennedy School. He is also a former Overseer at the Boston Museum of Science. Bob was named one of the Top 25 consultants in 2005 and holds a master’s degree, with a concentration in political economy, from Harvard University, where he studied under the 2005 Nobel Laureate in Economics, Tom Schelling. Bob also received his bachelor’s degree from the University of Southern California. Bob lives in Boston.
Chief Scientist
Crisply
Adam W. Marcus received his Ph.D. in Algorithms, Combinatorics and Optimization from Georgia Tech in 2008. As a Fulbright scholar In 2008, he was awarded the inaugural Dénes König Prize in Discrete Mathematics from the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics for his work in solving the Stanley–Wilf conjecture after more than 30 years of previous attempts. A book on this well-known problem and the solution is now being compiled.
Adam is currently a Visiting Professor at Yale University, and the Chief Scientist at Crisply Inc a Work Quantification Software company based in Cambridge Mass.
Adam is a frequent lecturer in Academia, and the Defense, Financial, and Software industries for his knowledge of mathematical algorithms and machine learning and their uses to solve real-world problems.
VP, Cognitive Computing
IBM Research
Guru is Vice President of Cognitive Computing at IBM Research, responsible for creating the next generation of cognitive systems in the Watson family. He has worked across IBM’s businesses to co-innovate with clients, for example, to build a City Operations Center in Rio de Janeiro, which supports planning and service management across thirty agencies within that city. Guru also served on NY Governor Cuomo’s commission for improving New York State’s resilience to natural disasters after the devastation of Hurricane Sandy.
His work has been featured in The New York Times, The Economist, and other international media, and he received a 2009 National Innovation Award by the President of India for the Spoken Web project.
Managing Director
Russell Reynolds
Based in New York, Shawn Banerji is a member of the Information Officers (IOP) and Business and Professional Services Practices within the Global Technology Sector (GTS) at Russell Reynolds Associates. He is a trusted advisor to clients on the convergence of talent and technology across all facets of the enterprise. His efforts have resulted in the succession, selection and recruitment of functional technology leaders (Chief Information Officer, Chief Technology Officer, Chief Digital Officer, Chief Data Officer) across industries, including healthcare, academia, financial services, telecom/technology, retail/consumer, industrial/natural resources as well as media and Internet. Shawn also has extensive business process outsourcing, process improvement, SaaS and shared services experience. Clients include high growth as well as large corporations, along with extensive work for investors and their portfolio companies.
Shawn is an ex officio board member of the Society for Information Management (SIM), an Advisor to Columbia University’s M.A. Technology Program and a contributor to MIT’s annual CIO Symposium. He received his B.A. from the University of Richmond, VA and his M.A. from the University of Westminster, London
SVP & CIO
UIL Holdings
Craig MacGibbon is currently the Vice President and CIO of UIL Holdings Corporation, a gas and electric company serving the southern Connecticut region. Craig joined UIL with over 20 years of information technology leadership and experience. Prior to joining UIL, Craig served as CIO and SVP for the enterprise solutions group at Fifth Third Bank, a leader in the banking industry. In this capacity, he provided leadership and oversight to developing the strategic direction for the enterprise group. He was focused on delivering a quality organization that was focused on providing value added services to the customer.
Prior to Fifth Third Bank, Craig MacGibbon served as VP of Information Systems and CIO for the Global Passenger Car Light Truck product division of Michelin Worldwide where he managed responsibilities both internationally and in the US. Craig held many positions within the company ranging from strategic planning to outsourcing.
Craig has led the IT organizations in many companies ranging from the cosmetics industry to the steel industry. He has a background in accounting and in systems.
Craig is also a Navy Veteran.
CIO
ASCAP
Mark Katz has had 25 years of experience in IT/Operations in the financial services industry. Katz has spent most of his career working broadly across different areas in Financial Services. Though he has served in several senior positions, Katz has maintained a hands-on approach to leadership. Katz started his career at Chemical Bank, and has worked in Banking, Capital Markets, and Insurance industry. In his more recent roles, he was CIO for Financial Products and Services for XL Capital, and CIO for Syncora Guarantee, a bond insurance firm.
Prior to that, he has run Equity IT (trading floors) for ING andSociete Generale. He has worked at a number of other Blue Chip organizations including Brown Brothers Harriman and Bankers Trust. Most recently Katz served as head of Development and Operations at Connolly, a recovery audit firm in CT. Katz holds Master’s degrees from Columbia University and The University of Chicago. As a somewhat accomplished musician, ASCAP has allowed him to reconnect with his passion for music.
CIO
Sealed Air
Warren Kudman is Vice President and Chief Information of Sealed Air Corporation, a leading global provider of systems and solutions for packaging and food science, hygiene, food safety and security, and building care. As CIO, Warren is responsible for delivering information services that enable the execution of the Sealed Air’s strategic objectives, improves customers’ ease of doing business with the company, and supports continuous improvement in Sealed Air’s day to day operations. Warren is also a member of the Sealed Air’s Senior Management Team and is currently the Integration Program Leader for the merger of Sealed Air’s recent acquisition of Diversey in to the company operations.
Prior to joining Sealed Air, Mr. Kudman spent 6 years with McKinsey & Company in the New York, New Jersey, and Copenhagen offices. During this time, he advised clients in Market Strategy, Information Technology Strategy and Management, Operations Improvement, and Sales Force Productivity in the Transportation, Financial Services, Telecommunications, and Pharmaceutical industries.
Chairman
Workforce Opportunity Services
Dr. Arthur M. Langer is the Associate Chair of Faculty Affairs, Support, and Development and Academic Director of the Executive Masters of Science in Technology Management at Columbia University. He also serves on the faculty of the Department of Organization and Leadership at the Graduate School of Education (Teachers College). Dr. Langer is also an elected member of the Executive Committee of the Columbia University Faculty Senate. Dr. Langer is the author of Strategic IT: Best Practices for Managers and Executives (2013 with Lyle Yorks), Guide to Software Development: Designing & Managing the Life Cycle (2012), Information Technology and Organizational Learning (2011), Analysis and Design of Information Systems (2007), Applied Ecommerce (2002), and The Art of Analysis (1997) and has numerous published articles and papers relating to service learning for underserved populations, IT organizational integration, mentoring and staff development.
Dr. Langer consults with corporations and universities on information technology, staff development, management transformation, and curriculum development around the Globe. Dr. Langer is also the Chairman and Founder of Workforce Opportunity Services (www.wforce.org), a non-profit social venture that provides scholarships and careers to underserved populations around the world.
Dr. Langer holds a B.S. in Computer Science, an M.B.A. in Accounting/Finance, and a Doctorate of Education from Columbia University.
Major General (Retired)
U.S Air Force
The Honorable Dale Meyerrose, Major General, U.S. Air Force retired, is president of the MeyerRose Group, LLC, a company that consults with a wide range of business, government, and academic organizations on strategy, business planning, technology, cybersecurity, and executive development issues. He is an associate professor at the School of Information Studies, Syracuse University and a lecturer at Carnegie Mellon University’s School of Computer of Science with the Institute for Software Research, where he runs the country’s only cybersecurity leadership certificate program. Mr. Meyerrose is on the Board of Directors for multiple corporations. He is also the President and Chairman of the Board for the Air Force Historical Foundation, Trustee for the U.S. Air Force Academy Falcon Foundation and advisor to the U.S. Air Force Heritage Program.
Mr. Meyerrose is an internationally respected subject matter expert on leadership, cyber, information technology, and intelligence, and military matters. He has more than three and a half decades of business, military, U.S. government, and academic experience. He has been frequently quoted in national, international, and trade publications and routinely appeared on nationally and internationally televised programs, including Fox News, CNN, Bloomberg International, and MSNBC. He is a much sought after speaker and panelist at international and national policy and technical conferences.
Mr. Meyerrose was the first President-appointed, Senate-confirmed chief Information officer for the U.S. Intelligence Community. He is a highly decorated Southwest Asia veteran who served as chief information officer for six major Air Force and joint military commands.
Mr. Meyerrose graduated from the U.S. Air Force Academy with a Bachelor of Science degree in economics and a Master in Business Administration from the University of Utah. He graduated from the National War College and attended senior executive programs at Harvard, University of California at Berkley, and the University Of Virginia.
