IBIT News

Temple University’s Fox School of Business will honor three top technology leaders Tuesday, April 12 at its 16th annual Information Technology Awards. This premier event is organized for Greater Philadelphia’s technology community by the nationally ranked Department of Management Information Systems (MIS) and the Institute for Business and Information Technology (IBIT). This year, Linda Dillman of QVC, Robert Moore of RJMetrics, and Rich Brennen of Spencer Stuart will receive awards.

“Linda, Robert, and Rich are leading the ongoing digital revolution that is transforming the business landscape,” said Fox School of Business Dean M. Moshe Porat. “They join a proud and rich tradition of leadership exhibited by previous Fox IT Award recipients. The IT Awards, now in its 16^th year, continue to recognize the best and brightest role models.”

Linda Dillman, Chief Information Officer, QVC, will receive the Fox IT Leader Award for her leadership in the use and development of IT in business. Dillman helped to develop and implement QVC’s global technology vision and strategy. Under Dillman’s leadership, QVC’s IT organization works to deliver a high-quality, seamless, multiplatform, engaging shopping experience for customers.

Dillman also serves on the board of directors for Cerner, the leading U.S. supplier of healthcare information technology solutions, and she was recently appointed to the GS1 US Board of Governors.

A seasoned leader, Dillman was recently named to the Top 10 Women in Tech list by Chain Storage Age magazine and a 2015 Top IT Pro by the Philadelphia Business Journal. She has also been recognized as a Computerworld Premier 100 IT leader for 2015 and a Most Powerful Women in Cable by CableFAX magazine in 2014 and 2015. Additionally, Dillman was named to Fortune’s “50 Most Powerful Women in Business” for five consecutive years.

Robert Moore, Co-founder and CEO, RJMetrics, a SaaS company that builds data infrastructure and analytics tools, will receive the Fox IT Innovator Award for his innovation in applying technology and insights to create business opportunities. Using his skills in data analysis, entrepreneurship and software development, Moore’s RJMetrics seeks to inspire and empower the data-driven community. Prior to launching RJMetrics, Moore served on the Investment Team of Insight Venture Partners in New York. As a writer and speaker, Moore has been featured by the New York Times, Forbes, TechCrunch, VentureBeat, TEDxPhilly, EnterConf, and Business of Software.

Moore supports local startups, serving on the leadership team of Philly Startup Leaders, and mentoring burgeoning Philadelphia entrepreneurs through the PSLU accelerator program.

Rich Brennen, North American CIO Practice Leader and Partner of Spencer Stuart, will receive the Fox IT Award for Distinguished Alumni for his work in the IT field and contributions to the community, industry and Temple. Brennen earned an MBA from the Fox School of Business in 1978. After graduation, he spent 15 years with IBM, where he played an instrumental role in building the company’s international information technology strategy and consulting practice. At Spencer Stuart, Brennen expanded its information officer position, leveraging his consulting talents to recruit 250 chief information officers for several Fortune 500 companies.

Brennen is currently a member of the Fox School Dean’s Council and Temple University’s Conwell Society.

Munir Mandviwalla, founding chair of the MIS department said, “The Award recipients are superb role models for our students and an inspiration to our faculty for their role in leading the new digital centric economy.”

Recipients are nominated and selected by a committee comprised of senior leadership at Fox, the Fox IT advisory board, and previous recipients.

The Fox School’s MIS department is ranked No. 1 globally in research for the period 2010-2014. US News and World Report has ranked its graduate and undergraduate programs in the Top 15 in the nation.

The Institute for Business and Information Technology integrates industry perspectives with academic research expertise to create forums for generating and exchanging best practices.

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/

By Fox Public Relations

The Institute for Business and Information Technology (IBIT) is pleased to announce the release of The IBIT Report – Implementing Board Oversight of Cybersecurity by Rich Flanagan and Janet Yeomans, Temple University.

AmerisourceBergen Executive Vice President and Chief Information Officer Dale Danilewitz has been appointed IBIT’s newest Executive in Residence.

The IBIT Executive in Residence program facilitates interaction between industry leaders and the faculty and students of Temple University’s Fox School of Business. In his role as IBIT Executive in Residence, Danilewitz will visit the Fox School Monday, April 4, and engage with faculty and students on topics and projects of mutual interest, while also promoting the activities of IBIT, the Fox School’s Management Information Systems department, and the Fox School of Business.

Additionally, AmerisourceBergen recently became a member of IBIT, and Danilewitz has joined the Fox IT Advisory Board.

“Joining the Fox School’s IBIT community as an Executive in Residence is an exciting opportunity to invest in the next generation of IT talent,” Danilewitz said. “I’m inspired by the passionate faculty and students at Temple and the Fox School, and I look forward to contributing to a dynamic academic experience.”

Danilewitz is Executive VP and CIO of AmerisourceBergen, one of the world’s largest pharmaceutical services companies. Based in Chesterbrook, Pa., AmerisourceBergen serves global markets with a focus on the pharmaceutical supply chain. Danilewitz has more than 25 years of experience in senior information technology positions, and his background spans manufacturing, hospitality, supply chain, and healthcare. He previously worked for Whirlpool and American Airlines/SABRE Group.

He holds a Master of Science degree in Electrical Engineering and Advanced Technology from Imperial College London, and Bachelor of Science degrees in Computer Science from Rhodes University and the University of the Witwatersrand.

“Dale is an inspiring role model for our students,” said Laurel Miller, Director. “He has been incredibly successful in his career, and continues to give back and make the effort to connect with students. Our students can learn from Dale on how to succeed with great values, composure, and concern for others.”

Temple University’s Institute for Business and Information Technology (IBIT) joined forces with Lockheed Martin in Washington D.C. in November 2015 to host the first annual National Cyber Analyst Challenge.

The competition, which welcomed 44 students and nine faculty advisors from nine universities, was designed to enhance students’ skills in combatting cyber-attacks and address a cyber talent crisis in the United States. The three-month, multi-phase competition aimed to inspire today’s technologically literate students to pursue careers in cyber security.

The result: It worked. Nearly 60 percent of the competition’s student-finalists completed online profiles with Lockheed Martin.

One of the students remarked “Also, hearing everyone tell us how valuable we are was a nice ego boost going into this field!”

The participants also rated the competition highly on the metric of ‘learned a lot’ (score of 1.33 on a scale of 1 to 5) and ‘value’ (score of 1.15).

“Cyber security analysts represent a critical skill need for most organizations,” said Chris Kearns, Lockheed Martin’s Vice President of Enterprise IT Solutions. “These students showed great promise through their hands-on teamwork to solve real world challenges and progress through the competition.”

According to SimplyHired.com, in mid-2015, there were 26,980 open cyber-security related positions. The need in these positions is less for operators and more for analysts. As threats multiply and diversify, intelligence analysis and identification is becoming critical, rather than secondary to the ability to configure or code secure servers. Yet, the job seekers in the talent pipeline find it difficult to integrate operational skills with strategic threat and cyber analysis. The goal of the National Cyber Analyst Challenge was to provide students with the opportunity to integrate specific operational skills with strategic threat analysis.

In the first phase of the competition, students pored over 75 gigabytes of data to find the cause of the simulated hack. Then the teams submitted 10-slide summary reports to explain their respective solutions for preventing future cyber-attacks. In the second phase, in which only nine teams competed, the students received training from industry experts. The competition culminated in a real-time practical challenge held at Lockheed Martin’s Global Vision Center in Crystal City, Va., in November.

A panel of industry experts, scoring finalists on technical proficiency, judgment, and communication, awarded the winning team $25,000 in prize money. Runners-up received awards of $7,500-$15,000 to support student, faculty, and curriculum development.

“It was gratifying to work with Lockheed Martin to create such a student- and faculty-centric opportunity,” said Dr. Munir Mandviwalla, IBIT’s Executive Director and the Chair of Management Information Systems at Temple’s Fox School of Business. “We hope to increase the national cyber talent pool across the nation’s top programs in Management Information Systems, Computer Science, and Engineering.”