Stanford University Names First CIO
Harvard Business School CIO Stephen Gallagher to lead Stanford's IT operations, strategic planning
Stanford University (CA) has named its first chief information officer. Stephen Gallagher, currently CIO at Harvard Business School, will join Stanford in March to oversee an IT organization with approximately 550 staff members and an annual budget of $150 million.
Among Gallagher's first tasks will be leading a review to determine which technology, systems and data should be moved to the cloud and which computing should remain managed within the university.
His portfolio will include enterprise business applications, e-mail and calendar systems; data warehouse and reporting environments; networking and telecommunications; research computing; data centers; help desk and distributed client support; and web design and development services.
In addition to collaborating with distributed IT departments across campus, he will also co-lead the CIO Council, consisting of CIOs from each of Stanford's schools and departments. He also will work closely with the CIOs of the Stanford Medicine entities. Information Security reports to both the CIO and chief risk officer.
Gallagher will report to Randy Livingston, vice president for business affairs, chief financial officer and university liaison for Stanford Medicine. "As CIO, Steve will be expected to provide a vision for how technology can drive better delivery of Stanford's mission, while balancing the need to keep current technology operations at this scale running efficiently," Livingston said in a prepared statement.
Gallagher has been CIO at Harvard Business School since 2013, overseeing 275 information technology staffers and contractors with responsibility for the administrative systems, academic technology and research platforms for the school. In addition, he has co-chaired the Harvard University Enterprise Architecture Committee and the University Data Management Common API Initiative.
He worked at the University of San Francisco from 2004 to 2013, where he became CIO and vice president for information technology services. Before joining USF, Gallagher served in senior leadership roles in the venture capital and financial technology sectors in the Bay Area and Boston, including roles as chief technology officer at Fidelity Investments Capital Technology and vice president of internet development at State Street Corp.
About the Author
David Raths is a Philadelphia-based freelance writer focused on information technology. He writes regularly for several IT publications, including Healthcare Innovation and Government Technology.