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IBIT News

MIS Academic Leadership Conference (MALC)

The Fox School hosted the MIS Academic Leadership Conference (MALC), October 26-28, 2023. MALC is the exclusive forum for MIS academic leaders including Business School Deans, Associate Deans, Department Chairs, Editors, and Program Directors to network with and learn from each other.

Topics included research impact, new directions and opportunities for Undergrad and Master’s programs, academia-industry partnerships, and redefining MBA in the age of AI.

President Richard Englert, Provost Gregory Mandel, and Dean Chip Hunter welcomed the participants which included over 75 senior leaders from across the nation and abroad. President Richard Englert opened the conference with the comment: Fox MIS is one of the crown jewels of Temple University.

IBIT advisory board chair, Bruce Fadem welcomed the participants at the evening reception.

The two days of intense thought-provoking discussions and brainstorming will change the shape of business education. Keynote speaker Michael Bradshaw, CIO, Kyndryl and member of the IBIT advisory board, presented a new vision for organizational IT.

The conference also featured Dean Chip Hunter who led a session on “Measuring Impact: Unraveling the Metrics and Insights from B-School Deans” with Deans Sulin Ba (DePaul), Ajay Vinze (George Mason), Saby Mitra (University of Florida) and Gert-Jan de Vreede (University of South Florida).

A session featuring Vince Ford (SVP, Curtis Institute), Jeff Hamilton (SVP, Pfizer Digital), Tarun Kapoor (SVP, Virtua Health), Christopher Kearns (VP, Kyndryl), & George Llado (Board member, Charles River Lab) identified best practices for academic-industry collaboration, while citing the IBIT advisory board as a role model.

MALC was co-chaired by Professors Sunil Wattal and IBIT Executive Director Munir Mandviwalla. IBIT co-sponsored the event.

Meta: Digitally transforming workforce management at scale and with agility

Meta: Digitally transforming workforce management at scale and with agility is a case by Munir Mandviwalla, Laurel Miller, and Larry Dignan featuring IBIT board member and Meta CIO Atish Banerjea.

The case outlines how Meta digitally transformed recruitment and enabled remote work for 70,000+ employees in a few months. Banerjea’s team pivoted their office-centric culture to remote work by applying Agile MVP principles.

The case sets the stage to investigate and research the future of work, workforce digital transformation, and Agile MVP principles as a management tool.

Alexion: Digital Co-Innovation Accelerating the Application of Analytics

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Alexion: Digital Co-Innovation Accelerating the Application of Analytics is a case by Larry Dignan, Laurel Miller, and Munir Mandviwalla, featuring IBIT board member, George Llado.

Llado co-innovated with startups to rapidly set up a big data analytics platform to increase sales. The case tells the story of how Llado’s ‘best athlete’ approach to source talent and digital co-innovation vendors is low-cost and agile, even in the regulated pharmaceutical industry.

One key aspect of his strategy was to work directly with venture funds including Sierra Ventures to identify best athletes such as Zaloni and Susan Cook, CEO. The case shows how firms can achieve success with big data and analytics.

Mentoring program encourages never-ending learning

IBIT’s mentoring program pairs industry professionals with Temple students, presenting the mentor and the student with an opportunity to learn from one another. The program which started in Spring 2020, has served 155 mentees to-date.

Deepya Paramata, a freshman MIS student (MIS ‘25), values the mentorship since it allows her to lead conversations with someone in the corporate world. Since her initial meeting with mentor Niel Mundell, VP at AmerisourceBergen, an IBIT partner firm, she feels encouraged, accepts the ambiguity of technology, and embraces the never-ending learning process.

Chris Cera, CEO, Arcweb Technologies, IBIT advisory board member, enjoys his mentor role, appreciating the ability to help young people solve personal challenges.

According to Kelly Liu (MIS ‘25) the mentoring program presents her with the opportunity to improve her professional development with the guidance of an industry professional. Now, Liu finds herself seizing more opportunities that allow her to discover her interests and as a means to learn more about herself and her passion. For Liu, passion translates into motivation which is the key to moving forward.

Rich Rivara, CEO of Wave6, is enthusiastic about his continued involvement in the program. His passion for giving back to students and learning about their own passions excites his imagination. He believes the mentorship program bridges education and experience. Rivara seeks to ensure that mentees share his excitement by bringing the students into meetings to provide a realistic view of a day-in-the-life of working in the corporate world.

Connections between the mentors and mentees do not end with the program. Mentors often keep in touch with past mentees and continue to provide advice and nourish their passions.

Sondra Barbour, IBIT advisory board member and chair of the mentoring program notes: I think it is important to note that not only are the students gaining knowledge from their mentor, but the mentor is gaining knowledge from the mentee. Engaging with the students has provided an avenue for me to keep in touch with the quality of the students as well as what the students are thinking and feeling about the department and curriculum. It’s been a valuable program.

The select program involved 14 participants in Spring 2023 including Jacob Andrien, Yann Awede, Tyler Bolling, Vincent Bracey Jr., Jaidyn Brown, Jackson Carpenter, Reya Islam, Ayesha Khalid, Gabriel Lins, Deepya Paramata, Neel Patel, Shivam Patel, Jamie Rubin, and Blake Bray.  

Mentors include Andrew Anania, retired EVP and CIO, Cigna, Sondra Barbour, Board of Directors for AGCO and Perspecta, Chris Cera, CEO, Arcweb Technologies, Dinesh Desai, Chairman, DARR Global Holdings, Inc., Larry Dignan, Editor in Chief, Constellation Research, Bruce Fadem, Retired VP and CIO, Wyeth, Vince Ford, SVP, Curtis Institute of Music, Jeff Hamilton, SVP, Pfizer Digital, Chris Kearns, VP, Kyndryl, Niel Mundell, VP, AmerisourceBergen, Sukumar Narayanan, President, DecisivEdge, Rich Rivara, CEO, Wave6, Craig Conway, FIS, Michael Luckenbill, Technology Manager, Capgemini, Dave Woodson, Director, KPMG, and Kevin Dang, Capabilities and Insights Analyst, McKinsey & Company.

To learn more, visit: https://ibit.temple.edu/ibit-mentoring-program/