Category: CITe News

CITe is pleased to announce the addition of Dr. Sasi Pillay as a new board member. Dr. Pillay serves as the Chief Information Officer at the NASA Glenn Research Center. He is responsible for advocating, managing, and implementing Information Technology investments and infrastructure. He also serves on the Center’s Strategic Management Council and the Operations Management Council.

Dr. Pillay is the recipient of NASA’s Exceptional Service Medal and the Outstanding Leadership Medal. He is also the recipient of the Presidential Rank Award recognizing him as a Meritorious Executive in the U.S. federal government. In November 2008, he was recognized as the CIO of the Year by the North East Ohio Software Association (NEOSA.)

Dr. Pillay received his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Pennsylvania State University, M.S. and PhD. degrees in Computer Engineering from Case Western Reserve University. He also has a Master’s degree in Management of Technology from the Sloan School of Management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Anita is a University of Akron graduate and CITe board member who recently received distinction as one of the top 30 women entrepreneurs to follow on Twitter. Anita is the founder and CEO of Small Business Trends. Small Business Trends is a popular business blog, website, and community that helps readers stay on top of trends in the small business market. Small Business Trends was named to the 2005 and 2008 Forbes Best of the Web. In addition, Anita is host of her own weekly talk radio/podcast program. Currently, Small Business Trends has 29,453 followers listed.

CITe is pleased to announce the acceptance of Sandra Rapp to the CITe Advisory Board. Sandra is the Vice President and Chief Information Officer of OE Connection located in Richfield. Sandra is a alumni of the University of Akron and holds an MBA in International Business from the CBA!

We have student recruitment sub-committee on Friday November 20th at 3:00pm. Send an e-mail to Paul Evans for more information on participation.

Congratulations to CITe advisory board member Jim Sage for winning the 2009 CIO of the Year Award for the non-profit organization category awarded by Northeast Ohio Software Association (NEOSA). Jim Sage has been Vice President for Information Technology at The University of Akron since December 2005. This is the second time Jim Sage has received the CIO of Year Award following the first one in 2007. Jim is a graduate of the University of Akron and holds a BS in MIS and Operations Management.

Welcome to Darren Hudach, Director, Global Software and NA Technical Support, PerkinElmer, Inc., who joined CITe advisory board recently.

Darren has been with PerkinElmer for over six years.   His primary areas of responsibility include: Global Genetic Screening Software, North American Technical Support, and Site Management for the Akron, Ohio Genetic Screening Technical Center.  Darren’s areas of expertise include team building, selecting and retaining top talent, leadership and motivation, new product development and maintenance, project management best practices, contract negotiation, P&L management, international business, and change management.

Six student teams spent the entire spring, 2009 semester developing solutions for a real problem at Summa Health Systems. In the midst of rapid growth and the robust outlook for the health care sector, Summa wants to improve the way that Human Resources (HR) information and transactions are processed and shared with its more than 10,000 employees across more than 12 locations. Teams met with senior executives, conducted surveys and other primary research, and presented their recommendations to Summa at the end of the semester.

During the Fall 2008 semester, the teams worked on a project for Timken on how to implement web 2.0 tools to increase employee collaboration through the company’s intranet. 500 North American associates completed a survey which the students used to formulate recommendations regarding the use of tools such as Wikis, Blogs, and RSS feeds, translation tools (to address global communications needs), and management policies to encourage knowledge sharing and retention. Each semester a different local firm is chosen; recent participants have included Goodyear, YRC (Roadway), FirstEnergy, Timken, and InfoCision.

Students who participated in the CITe mentoring program this semester highly recommend the program to other students. Mentors provided students with valuable insight concerning the IT business during the recession, offered them internships with their companies or their partner’s companies, and also gave the students helpful career advice. In addition, many times students do not have a lot of opportunity to interact with IT professionals while earning their degrees, so this program is a great way for students to improve professional communication skills.