Fox IT Symposium Panelists

Social Computing and Networking: Business Tool or Consumer Fad?

Dominic Boffa
VP and CIO
Aramark Higher Education

As Chief Information Officer and Vice President, Technology Solutions of ARAMARK Higher Education, Dominic Boffa works to develop integrated technology solutions to enhance the student dining experience on the over 400 campuses ARAMARK serves across North America.

In 1999, Boffa joined ARAMARK as Vice President, Systems Development, Corporate IT. He was responsible for an organization of over 60 IT professionals in multiple U.S. locations supporting all application systems development, maintenance and large-program management of ARAMARK information systems and e-Business initiatives. He was responsible for the $120 million implementation of all Oracle financial modules and operations management software with a program team of over 100 employees and consultants. Boffa was also instrumental in the IT due-diligence and integration of the $1 billion ServiceMaster Management Services into the ARAMARK family.

In 2003 Boffa was promoted to his current role in ARAMARK’s Higher Education division ($1.9B) where he is currently leading an organization of 30 professionals driving innovative, growth-driven business process, supply chain, and consumer-facing e-commerce initiatives.

Prior to joining ARAMARK, Boffa held various management positions in manufacturing operations and customer service within the General Electric Company. Next he held several key line and staff manufacturing and information technology management positions within the GE Aerospace and Lockheed Martin Information Technology organizations, culminating as Director of Sourcing and Advanced Manufacturing Systems Programs at Lockheed. In these roles, his objectives were the development and deployment of common Supply Chain, Quality, ERP, and Manufacturing Execution Systems at over 15 major manufacturing locations. These systems yielded over $190 million in annual savings and served as major competitive advantage enablers.

After Lockheed, Boffa joined KPMG LLP as Senior Manager in the Consumer and Industrial Markets consulting practice, where he specialized in large-scale enterprise systems integration and implementations for a variety of domestic and international manufacturing and service-management clients. His clients included Lehigh Cement, Panasonic, ARCO Chemical, World Airways, Allen Organ Co., J. E. Morgan Mills, Canam Steel Corp., Philadelphia Gear and ARAMARK. He was responsible for winning over $40 million in new business and bringing in over $20 million in revenue for the firm.

Boffa received his BS degree in System Engineering from the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn (NY) and was awarded an MS degree in Industrial Administration from Union College in Schenectady, NY.

Boffa is a graduate of the GE Management Development Institute and GE Management Problems Analysis Program in quantitative methods. He was a participant in the IBM Advanced Business Institute workshop in Management of the Information Systems Resource. In 1993, he established Infocept Systems, Inc., which specializes in competitive advantage consulting and systems for small businesses. He is also an industry member of the Schools of Hospitality Technology Advisory Boards at both Penn State University and the University of Delaware.

Boffa is a member of the Central Bucks County (PA) Chamber of Commerce and the ARAMARK Executive Leadership Council. He and his family reside in Doylestown, Pennsylvania.

Aramark is currently using both Facebook groups and Twitter to communicate dining-services retail promotions, specials, text coupons, dining news, special events and as part of their JAM loyalty program. Their dining services teams create the Facebook and / or Twitter entity and then invite students to voluntarily opt-in to include these groups / receive messages. They are piloting Twitter and Facebook at 8 schools and their future plans are to send messages / topics on health & wellness and community events.

Joan Morris DiMicco
Research Scientist
IBM

Joan DiMicco is a Research Scientist at IBM's T. J. Watson Research Center, in Cambridge, MA. Her career has been focused at the intersection of design, engineering, and organizational behavior. Her research aims to create social software tools that shed light on our understanding of the impact of technology on human relationships. She holds a BS in Applied Mathematics from Brown University and a PhD from the MIT Media Lab.

Annie Heckenberger
Social Media Director
Greater Philadelphia Tourism Marketing Corporation

In the fall of 2006, Annie Heckenberger joined GPTMC in the new position of Social Media Director. In this capacity, she integrates multimedia and social media vehicles that connect the “Philadelphia” brand with consumers in new, nontraditional ways.

Annie brings more than 10 years of PR, Branding and Marketing agency experience with her to GPTMC. Her diverse background includes managing accounts and generating national publicity for beauty/lifestyle, consumer electronics, entertainment, fabric & homecare, fashion, fitness, food, hair care, healthcare, home video, law, office products, telecom and wireless clients. She previously founded an Emerging Media division for NYC PR agency Marina Maher Communications. This service area sought new ways for brands to reach consumers via both online and mobile applications.

Annie has a long and deep traditional media background with solid relationships at top-tier media outlets. Past clients include top Fortune 500 companies such as Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer, Proctor & Gamble, Sara Lee and Schering Plough.

Annie is a graduate of Fairfield University in Fairfield, CT, where she received a B.A., majoring in English and Minoring in Political Science and Communications. She also attended London Guildhall University in London, England, while interning as a Research Assistant in the House of Commons, for Tory MP Piers Merchant.

Chris Kearns
Manager
Lockheed Martin Information Systems and Global Services

Chris Kearns has worked with Lockheed Martin since 1998. He has worked in various positions within the CIO organization since 2003 including roles as an Application Strategist, Deputy Program Manager and Program Manager. In 2004, Chris was named the Program Manager for Lockheed Martin IS&GS Unity Program for collaboration and social networking. His product knowledge spans portals, collaboration tools, web applications and legacy system integration. His areas of interest include Knowledge Management, Enterprise Architecture, Leadership, and Business Strategy. Chris and his wife Maureen reside in Chester Springs, PA with their 5 year old daughter and 2 year old son.

Colleen McMahon
Director
GlaxoSmithKline

Colleen McMahon is the Director of Global IT Security at GlaxoSmithKline, a leading pharmaceutical company with headquarters in Philadelphia, PA. As Director of IT Security, Colleen provides direction to GSK to ensure that IT security risks associated with projects and services are identified, evaluated and managed; particularly with regard to access management, network security, data protection, secure collaboration, application security; and connectivity.

Colleen Mc Mahon is a recognized expert on digital signature and electronic identity in the health care industry and currently chairs the Business Working Group, of SAFE Biopharma Association, a non-profit member-driven organization that manages and promotes the biopharmaceutical industries standard on electronic identity credentials and legally enforceable digital signatures. Since its initial formation in 2003, Colleen has promoted and advanced the use of digital identity in the health care industry via presentations to various forums including DIA (Drug Information Association) and The National HIPPA Conference. Colleen has worked closely with members of the electronic Health Initiative to promote the use of secure digital identities within electronic health care records and is a member of the Nation Healthcare Information Technology Standards Security and Privacy Subcommittee.

Since joining GSK in 2000, Colleen participated in GSK’s electronic data capture project enabling several hundred clinical investigators to electronically capture clinical trial patient information. Colleen also served as Transnational Alliance Program Manager delivering the IT components necessary to support external collaborations between GSK and its business partners.

Prior to joining GSK as an IT consultant at Ciber, Inc Colleen worked on various engagements across the commercial and healthcare sectors including e-commerce website development, electronic records management and collaborative tools usage and deployment.

Munir Mandviwalla
Executive Director
Institute for Business and Information Technology

Associate Professor Munir Mandviwalla, founding chair of the Management Information Systems department, and Executive Director, Institute for Business and Information Technology, Fox School of Business, Temple University holds a BSc in Systems Engineering from Boston University, a MBA from the Peter F. Drucker School of Management at Claremont Graduate University, and a Ph.D. in Management Information Systems from the Programs in Information Science at Claremont Graduate University. His current research interests include communication technologies, globalization, and the use of prototyping for theory development. Dr. Mandviwalla’s teaching focuses on information systems management.

Dr. Mandviwalla has published more than 40 articles in scholarly journals and international conferences. His most recent work in 2007 includes identifying and defining the concept of municipal wireless networks (forthcoming in Communications of the ACM). He is currently working on a case study of global integration by analyzing the global IT implementation strategy of a major pharmaceutical company. His publications have appeared in Management Information Systems Quarterly, ACM Transactions on Computer Human Interaction, Journal of Organizational Computing and Electronic Commerce, Decision Support Systems, Small Group Research, Communications of the Association for Information Systems, and Information Systems Journal. His work has been supported by grants of more than $2 Million from the National Science Foundation (NSF), Bell Atlantic, IBM, Microsoft Corporation, CIGNA Corporation, Advanta Corporation, Lotus Development Corporation, and Lilly Endowment, Inc. In 2000, IBM selected him for their Faculty Partnership Award in recognition for contributions to E-Business teaching and research. In 2002, The Claremont Graduate University recognized him with their Alumni Hall of Fame award.

As executive director of the Institute for Business and Information Technology, Mandviwalla leads a full service institute that engages with industry at multiple levels including research and human capital development, and provides faculty and students with funding, scholarships, contacts, and professional development. As the founding chair of the department of Management Information Systems, Mandviwalla leads the research and teaching activities related to information systems for the Fox School of Business.