IBIT News

Tech leaders Turner, Rhee, and Kotch honored at Eighteenth Annual Fox IT awards

Temple University’s Fox School of Business will honor three top technology leaders at its 18^th Annual Information Technology (IT) Awards.

This premier event, held April 10 at Temple’s Mitten Hall, is organized for Greater Philadelphia’s technology community by the Fox School’s renowned Department of Management Information Systems (MIS) and Temple’s Institute for Business and Information Technology (IBIT).

This year, IBIT recognizes: John Turner of 3M; James Rhee of Ashley Stewart; and Dave Kotch of FMC Corporation.

“The IT industry is rapidly evolving and requires adept and flexible leaders like John, James, and Dave,” said Dr. M. Moshe Porat, Dean of the Fox School. “That’s why we are proud to honor them as this year’s Fox IT Awards recipients. They join a rich pantheon of industry leaders who have been recognized at this annual event, and their example will serve the future of the industry and the current students at the Fox School.”

John Turner will receive the Fox IT Leader Award, given annually to a person who demonstrates leadership in the use and development of IT in business. Turner is Vice President and Chief Information Officer at 3M, a global science company producing innovations that improve lives daily.

James Rhee will receive the Fox IT Innovator Award, given annually in recognition of innovation in the application of IT to create business opportunity. Rhee, serves as Executive Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Ashley Stewart, a leading multimedia fashion brand at the forefront of omni-channel retail and social commerce.

Dave Kotch will receive the Fox IT Award for Distinguished Alumni, given annually to a graduate of the Fox School of Business in recognition of a distinguished career in IT. Kotch is Vice President and Chief Information Officer of FMC Corporation, one of the world’s leading specialty companies focused on agriculture and lithium technologies.

“Our Fox School MIS students can look to this year’s three deserving recipients as role models,” said Dr. David Schuff, Professor and Chair of the Department of Management Information Systems at Temple’s Fox School of Business. “They are examples to our students of how IT leadership shapes the future of business.”

Added Dr. Munir Mandviwalla, IBIT’s Executive Director and Associate Professor of MIS at the Fox School: “Digital transformation is changing every industry. Consistent with its industry engagement mission, IBIT is proud to identify and recognize exceptional digital transformation leaders in the manufacturing, retail, and chemical industries.”

Recipients of the 2018 IT Awards are nominated and selected by a committee comprised of senior leadership at the Fox School of Business, the Fox IT Advisory Board, and previous recipients.

For more information on the current Fox IT Awards, visit http://ibit.temple.edu/itawards/ and see previous recipients at http://ibit.temple.edu/programs/it-awards/

Contact:
Christopher A. Vito
Temple University
215-204-4115, cvito@temple.edu

The Cyber-Based View of the Firm

The Institute for Business and Information Technology (IBIT) is pleased to announce the release of The IBIT Report –The Cyber-Based View of the Firm, by Tamara Schwartz and David Schuff, Temple University.

Information Systems Job Index 2017

The Institute for Business and Information Technology (IBIT) is pleased to announce the release of The IBIT Report –Information Systems Job Index, by Munir Mandviwalla, Crystal Harold, and Maria Boggi, Temple University.

Jeff Hamilton, SVP, Business Technology, Pfizer, appointed Executive In Residence

Temple University’s Institute for Business and Information Technology (IBIT) has appointed Pfizer executive Jeff Hamilton as its newest Executive in Residence.

Pfizer’s Senior Vice President of Business Technology, Hamilton visited Temple’s Fox School of Business Wednesday, Dec. 6. He engaged with faculty and students on topics and projects of mutual interest, including the activities of IBIT, the Fox School, and its nationally ranked Management Information Systems (MIS) department.

Said Laurel Miller, Director of Temple IBIT: “Jeff is an excellent mentor who is committed to student development. He is always looking to engage with faculty on research, as well. In other words, he was a natural choice to serve as an Executive in Residence for IBIT.”

The IBIT Executive in Residence program facilitates interaction between industry leaders and the faculty and students of Temple University’s Fox School of Business.

Hamilton, in his role with Pfizer, leads business technology in the global innovative pharmaceutical business, including contributions in the achievement of its strategic priorities through the use of digital, data, and analytics capabilities. He also is responsible for directing Pfizer’s global enterprise resource planning program, including the deployment of single-enterprise solution to integrate company’s manufacturing, commercial, and finance operations.

Prior to joining Pfizer, Hamilton served as an associate partner with Andersen Consulting, where he led large operational transformation programs for pharmaceutical and other Fortune 500 companies.

Hamilton holds a Master of Business Administration degree in information systems from the University of Buffalo, where he also attained a Bachelor of Science degree in engineering.

Industry and Academic Experts Highlight the Practical Path Forward for Artificial Intelligence

Since Isaac Asimov created the three laws of robotics in 1942, artificial intelligence has been a distant unattainable vision for business. On November 15, Temple University’s Institute for Business and Information Technology (IBIT) gathered academic and industry leaders to create a pragmatic path for generating value from Artificial Intelligence (AI) and related technologies such as machine learning.

The IBIT symposium on “The Practical Path Forward: Cognitive Computing, Artificial Intelligence, and Analytics” organized in cooperation with Emtec Inc., an advisory firm, attracted about 100 local and national experts.

Keynote speaker Jeff Hamilton, Senior Vice President, Pfizer, demonstrated how AI is in action today at Pfizer and other firms in improving healthcare such as physician interaction, patient adherence, and access. Jeff Szuba, Vice President of Analytics at NBCU and voted by attendees as one of the symposium’s highest-rated speakers, showed how analytics is driving consumer engagement using scalable data foundations in the media industry.

Another highly rated speaker, Ron Kim, a private equity expert at TPG Global, and former CIO of Exelon, showed how to separate hype from practical reality. David Schuff, Professor and Chair of MIS at Temple University presented research directions relating to the role of unsupervised algorithms in shaping business. Sunil Misra, President, Emtec, presented a well-received use case on robotic process automation (RPA).

Cognitive Computing Symposium Panel 2017 Speakers from DARPA, Alexion, QVC, LiquidHub, AmerisourceBergen, Comcast, Aetna and MuHu covered topics such as cognitive networking, infrastructure, consumer personalization and real time insights, and AI self-service platforms.

“The speakers provided tangible, practical, and measurable examples of the role of AI,” said Dr. Munir Mandviwalla, IBIT executive director, “It was an excellent day of knowledge sharing, which is — after all — the essence of a university.”

Contact:
Christopher A. Vito
Associate Director of Communications
cvito@temple.edu, 215-204-4115

View more information about the symposium here.

View photos from the event here.