Frank Sirianni, Ph.D., vice president for information technology and chief information officer at Fordham, has been named one of Computerworld magazine’s Premier 100 IT Leaders for 2009.
Sirianni is recognized in the magazine’s December issue, which highlights the accomplishments of those who have “used technology to have a positive impact on their organization.”
According to the magazine, “In the five-year budget he sent to the University’s board of directors, [Sirianni] vowed to further reduce energy, paper and printing costs by seven figures.”
“It’s my personal mission to come up with new sources of revenue or ways to save money,” Sirianni told Computerworld.
Describing his leadership philosophy, he said, “Teach the corporate strategies; model the desired behavior; build teams with shared accountability. Clearly articulate the vision and lay out the path to meeting them.”
According to the Computerworld Web site, a premier IT leader is an individual who guides the effective use of information technology to improve his or her company’s business performance.
The 78 men and 22 women who make up this year’s Premier 100 list are vice presidents, CIOs, directors and managers from several IT sectors—network management, database management, intranet and Web management and help desk, among others. All were nominated from across the industry—from vendors and IT users as well as public relations and marketing professionals.
More than 1,000 nominations for the 2009 list were collected in April and May. Computerworld editors invited the nominees to complete a comprehensive management/leadership questionnaire online during June and July. The candidates were asked about a range of topics, including their backgrounds, work experiences, special accomplishments, leadership styles, technology priorities and strategies and other details about the IT environments they have fostered at their companies.
The magazine described the men and women who make up the list as “collaborators and consolidators. They are environmental and social policy leaders at their organizations. They tend to ignore well-worn lines of demarcation between business and consumer technology and are supporting blogs, wikis, iPhones and social networks. They deploy what works rather than what’s politically safe.”
Sirianni, who has been at Fordham since 2005, told Computerworld he eventually would like to hold the titles of president and CEO. He described his job in the field of information technology as “coordinating creative people at disciplined tasks.”
Before coming to Fordham, Sirianni served as the vice president and chief information officer at the State University of New York’s Fashion Institute of Technology. He began his career in educational administration in 1981 as the director of research and information and dean of freshmen at Ramapo College in New Jersey.
