Fox IT Awards Reception

Digital Leaders Chris Kearns, Patrick Cozzi, and Yasmine Mustafa Honored at 24th Annual Information Technology Awards

The Temple University Institute for Business and Information Technology (IBIT) honored three accomplished digital leaders at its 24th Annual Information Technology Awards on Wednesday, April 29, 2026, in Philadelphia.

The event brought together top technology leaders, innovators, and disruptors for an evening of celebration. The program featured remarks by Laurel Miller and an award presentation by IBIT Advisory Board Chair Sondra Barbour, followed by an AI discussion facilitated by Konstantin Bauman. Members of the IBIT community—including industry partners, alumni, faculty, and students from across Temple University—were in attendance.

The evening spotlighted IBIT’s three honorees for 2026:

Chris Kearns, Senior Vice President for Enterprise Applications at Kyndryl, received the 2026 Information Technology Leader Award. He oversees enterprise applications across the firm, including front-office lead-to-quote processes, back-office quote-to-cash operations, and corporate support functions. He is recognized for driving innovation and operational excellence across financial systems, CRM, marketing, procurement, and other core platforms.

Patrick Cozzi, Chief Platform Officer at Bentley Systems, received the 2026 Information Technology Innovator Award. He leads the open platform for digital twins of the built and natural environment, enabling a global ecosystem of developers. He is the founder and former CEO of Cesium, which was acquired by Bentley in 2024, and an EY Entrepreneur of the Year Greater Philadelphia Award winner.

Yasmine Mustafa, President and Founder of ROAR, received the 2026 Information Technology Award for Distinguished Alumni. Drawing on her experience as a refugee and entrepreneur, she leads ROAR’s mission to empower and protect individuals through technology. She has over 15 years of experience leading technology ventures, including the successful sale of her first company, 123LinkIt, in 2009.

For more information about the awards and honorees, visit:
https://ibit.temple.edu/itawards/

To view event photos, click here.

For inquiries, contact IBIT at ibit@temple.edu

Digital leaders McGettigan, Nucci, and Conway honored at 23rd Annual Information Technology Awards

Temple University’s Institute for Business and Information Technology (IBIT) honored three accomplished digital leaders at its 23rd Annual Information Technology Awards on Thursday, May 1st, 2025, in Philadelphia.

The event brought together top technology leaders, innovators, and disruptors for an evening of celebration. The dinner featured remarks by Dean Chip Hunter and award presentation by IBIT board chair Sondra Barbour, followed by a conversation on leadership, innovation, careers, and AI moderated by Munir Mandviwalla. Members of the IBIT community of industry partners, alumni, faculty and students from colleges across Temple University were in attendance.

The evening spotlighted IBIT’s three honorees for 2025.

David McGettigan, Senior Vice President, Pfizer Inc., received the 2025 Information Technology Leader Award. McGettigan is leading Enterprise Platforms and Solutions encompassing three major areas: Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Enterprise Platforms (Cloud Computing, Infrastructure and Operations) as well as Acquisitions, Collaborations, and Divestitures (ACD). This includes our systems that manage ~$60B – $100B in financial and supply transactions annually. David has extensive experience across marketing, finance, manufacturing, and digital platforms for multinational companies, and has successfully led many large-scale transformational, innovative, and business acquisition initiatives.

Rick Nucci, Co-Founder and CEO, Guru, received the 2025 Information Technology Innovator Award. Guru is the enterprise AI search and knowledge platform that delivers trusted information from your company’s scattered docs, apps, and chats the moment you need it – directly in your workflow. Industry leaders like DHL, Shopify, and Spotify are a few of the thousands of companies that use Guru to break down information silos, reduce app overload, and improve efficiency org-wide. Before Guru, Rick was the founder of Boomi, which defined and led a new segment as the industry’s first cloud integration platform-as-a-service. Boomi was acquired by Dell in 2010, where Rick went on to run the Boomi business for Dell, helping grow the organization into the industry leader it is today.

Craig Conway, Chief Technology Officer, Togetherwork, received the 2025 Information Technology Award for Distinguished Alumni. Prior to his role at Togetherwork, he was responsible for operations and customer experience for the Modern Banking platform at FIS. The Modern Banking platform is a 3rd generation cloud-based core banking platform for both retail and commercial banks. FIS is the global leader in financial technologies focusing on banking, capital markets, and payments products and services.

A sub-committee of the IBIT advisory board including Jeff Hamilton (committee chair), Bruce Fadem, Niraj Patel and Sondra Barbour (board chair) identified nominees for the 2025 awards from a list of 69 candidates. These nominations were submitted to and approved by the entire board.

For more about the IT awards and honorees, visit https://ibit.temple.edu/itawards/.
To see the event pictures, click here.

Contact ibit at ibit@temple.edu.

Digital leaders Hamilton, Wink, and Geatens honored at 22nd Annual IT Awards

Temple University’s Institute for Business and Information Technology (IBIT) honored three accomplished digital leaders at its 22nd Annual Information Technology Awards.

The awards event, held Wednesday, May 1, 2024, in Philadelphia, brought together an elite group of tech leaders, innovators and disruptors for an engaging evening of celebration amongst the IBIT community. Dean Chip Hunter started the program by welcoming the participants. The rest of the evening spotlighted the honorees who shared their expertise and vision.

Jeff Hamilton, Chief Information Officer, Teva Pharmaceuticals received the 2024 Information Technology Leader Award. Hamilton is responsible for technology systems and infrastructure in 60 countries and 50 plants at Teva. Previously, Hamilton was Senior Vice President, Pfizer Digital with responsibility for manufacturing, supply chain and finance systems. He directed Pfizer’s digital efforts to rapidly scale COVID-19 vaccine production and distribution of billions of doses to more than 170 countries.

Chris Wink, cofounder and CEO of Technical.ly, received the 2024 Information Technology Innovator Award. Wink, a journalist and entrepreneur, co-founded Technical.ly, a news and community resource for technologists and entrepreneurs. Wink is the lead organizer of Philly Tech Week and in 2022, he was named one of Pennsylvania’s most influential impact leaders, and in 2017 Folio magazine named him one of the 100 most innovative media leaders in the country.

Fran Geatens, Vice President, Technology Infrastructure, Operations, and Experience, Merck received the 2024 Information Technology Award for Distinguished Alumni. Geatens is responsible for managing Merck’s worldwide technology infrastructure and business applications. He led Merck’s accelerated cloud transformation that is enabling new ways of working. Geatens is a graduate of Temple University’s Fox School of Business.

This year’s group of honorees are truly exceptional and we are proud to recognize them as digital innovation leaders.
Munir Mandviwalla, Executive Director

A sub-committee of the IBIT advisory board including George Llado (committee chair), Sondra Barbour, Michael Bradshaw, Andrea Stewart, and Bruce Fadem (board chair) identified nominees for the 2024 awards from a list of 62 candidates. These nominations were submitted to and approved by the entire board. Fadem, Barbour, and Llado also introduced each award recipient at the event.

The impact of the 2024 awards was rated highly on IBIT’s new Impact Model with an average score of 5.94 on a scale from 1 to 7 with 7 being the highest rating. The highest rating of 6.43 was for the value of participating in the activity, while the lowest rating of 4.92 was for contributing to the success of the activity. The following is a sample of comments included in the above responses.

It was even better than the last year. I loved it.
Student Participant

Great to see the strides the program has made and industry connections to strengthen IBIT’s place in the market.
Industry Participant

The event was the best so far. Excellent choice of venue, everything was very professionally run.
Industry Participant

For more about the IT awards and honorees, visit https://ibit.temple.edu/itawards/. To see the event pictures, click here.
For more details about the impact assessment, visit: https://ibit.temple.edu/impact

Tech leaders Kurshan, Meyers, and Sridharan honored at 21st Annual IT Awards

Temple University’s Institute for Business and Information Technology (IBIT) honored three exceptional technology leaders at its 21st Annual Information Technology Awards.

This premier exclusive event, held Thursday, May 4, 2023, in Philadelphia, brought together an elite group of technology leaders, innovators and disruptors for an engaging evening of discussion about the rapidly changing digital landscape and how we prepare for the road ahead.

The evening spotlighted IBIT’s three honorees for 2023 who shared their expertise and vision with the attendees through keynote presentations.

Dr. Barbara “Bobbi” Kurshan, Board Member of American Public Education, Inc., received the 2023 Information Technology Innovator Award. Dr. Kurshan, co-author of “InnovateHERs – Why Purpose-Driven Entrepreneurial Women Rise to the Top,” has honed her vision of “what can be” using technology while supporting education companies and developing innovative products. She currently serves as a Senior Innovation Advisor at the Graduate School of Education at the University of Pennsylvania where she builds and advises education innovation ecosystems and co-directs the global certificate in Innovation and Entrepreneurship.

Bobbi’s keynote focused on “Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Synergistic But Not Synonymous.”

Gregory S. Meyers, Chief Technology and Digital Officer at Bristol Myers Squibb, received the 2023 Information Technology Leader Award. As a key leader at one of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies, Meyers is responsible for the company’s digital transformation, the IT function and cybersecurity. He leads the company’s digital health initiative which performs cutting edge R&D using Artificial Intelligence to transform the way patients who suffer from serious diseases are diagnosed, treated and monitored.

Greg’s keynote focused on “You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet, Tech in the Next 20 Years.”

Karthik K. Sridharan, Executive Vice President and Chief Information Officer, OceanFirst Bank N.A. received the 2023 Information Technology Award for Distinguished Alumni. Prior to his role at OceanFirst Bank, Karthik was the Chief Technology Officer at Citigroup and held leadership roles in global technology management with JP Morgan Chase and Bank of America Merrill Lynch. He was also Industry Manager at Microsoft before entering the financial services industry. Karthik is a graduate of Temple University’s Fox School of Business.

Karthik’s keynote focused on “Let’s Apply Digital Disruption to Impact Our Communities.”

“This year’s group of honorees are truly exceptional in their contributions to the IT community, and we are proud to recognize them as digital transformation leaders,” says Dr. Munir Mandviwalla, IBIT’s Executive Director and Professor of MIS at Temple University’s Fox School of Business.

For more information about the IT awards and to learn more about the honorees, please visit https://ibit.temple.edu/itawards/. To see the event pictures, click here.

Contact ibit at ibit@temple.edu.

Twentieth Annual IT Awards

The 20th annual IT awards celebrated 20 years of excellence and successes of the Management Information Systems Department (MIS) and the Institute for Business and Information Technology (IBIT) on April 14, 2022. A photobook commemorated the anniversary featuring pictures of the last 20 years.

The event featured the IBIT Lifetime Achievement Award for Bruce Fadem, founding Chair, IT advisory board, Retired VP and CIO, Wyeth. Bruce was recognized for founding the IT advisory board, playing a major role in keeping the MIS curriculum up-to-date, student scholarships, and for working with IBIT to develop a worldwide reputation in industry-academic engagement. A committee of IBIT and MIS personnel selected Bruce for the award.

Michael Luckenbill, Technology Manager, Capgemini, Fox MIS alum ’08 was recognized with the MIS 20th Anniversary Alumni Award. Michael founded the MIS student organization, which became the template for Association for Information Systems (AIS) student chapters worldwide, speaks regularly in classes, mentors’ students, reviews curriculum, and provides advice on current industry trends. A committee of IBIT and MIS personnel selected Michael for the award.

Laurel Miller, Assistant Professor and IBIT Director, received the IBIT Lifetime Achievement Award for playing a major role in creating the National Cyber Analyst Challenge, Temple and National Analytics Challenges, mentoring program, career fair, sustaining and growing the IBIT relationship with industry, and the IT awards. The entire IBIT IT advisory board selected Laurel for the award.

David Schuff, Professor and Chair of MIS, received the IBIT Lifetime Achievement Award for creating the Temple and National Analytics Challenges, serving as editor-in-chief of the IBIT Report and as Research Director for industry projects, and leading programs that generate industry relevant talent. The entire IBIT IT advisory board selected David for the award.

The carnival themed event was attended by students, alums, faculty, staff, deans, and the IBIT advisory board.

See more pictures here.

The event also featured awards for students, faculty, and staff:

STUDENT LEADERSHIP AWARD Connor McShane	IBIT ALEXION SCHOLARSHIP Lucas Winslow
RESEARCHER OF THE YEAR AWARD Jason Thatcher	IBIT EMTEC SCHOLARSHIP Austin Yun
FACULTY LEADERSHIP AWARD Jason Thatcher	IBIT PFIZER SCHOLARSHIP Beth Whitehead
TEACHER OF THE YEAR AWARD Amy Lavin	IBIT SCHOLASTIC SCHOLARSHIP Sevgi Sivri
ADJUNCT OF THE YEAR AWARD Brian Green	ASSOCIATION FOR INFORMATION SYSTEMS Outstanding Officer: Abbey Helterbran Outstanding Member: Nicholas Bortz
ADMINISTRATIVE LEADERSHIP AWARD Lori Roseman	IT ADVISORY BOARD SCHOLARSHIP Luke Swiatek
JAMES AND ANDREA STEWART SCHOLARSHIP Omar Elamin Jingwen Lin Kelly Liu	RON AND RONDA RIDDELL SCHOLARSHIP Kumar Varathakumar Josia Phillip
YUSUF G. MANDVIWALLA SCHOLARSHIP Connor D’Arcy Dylan Lloyd	BILL AND JEAN DEVANEY SCHOLARSHIP Jacob Guo
RICHARD AND MAUREEN BRENNEN SCHOLARSHIP Hunter Shoenfelt
IT LEADERS SCHOLARSHIP Mia Myers Kayla Barone Nosa Iyamu	IT LEADERS SCHOLARSHIP Alexander McShane Allyson Yu Rahman Mohammed

MIS Professional and Academic Achievement Awards:

SENIOR
Jany Huang, Tanner Valentine

JUNIOR
Lauren Quinn, Vattey Meas

SOPHOMORE
Rhea Kumar, Alexander McShane

FRESHMAN
Angel Cherian, Jerimiah Arbertha

Digital Leaders Chris Kearns, Patrick Cozzi, and Yasmine Mustafa Honored at 24th Annual Information Technology Awards

Digital leaders McGettigan, Nucci, and Conway honored at 23rd Annual Information Technology Awards

Digital leaders Hamilton, Wink, and Geatens honored at 22nd Annual IT Awards

Tech leaders Kurshan, Meyers, and Sridharan honored at 21st Annual IT Awards

Twentieth Annual IT Awards

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY LEADER AWARD RECIPIENTS

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY INNOVATOR AWARD RECIPIENTS

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AWARD FOR DISTINGUISHED ALUMNI RECIPIENTS

PREVIOUS IT AWARDS

Institute for Business and Information Technology