Campus & community, Campus news

Larry Conrad named new chief information officer

By Public Affairs

The following was sent to the campus community on Friday, Dec. 21, as a CalMessage:

We are pleased to announce the appointment of Larry Conrad as Berkeley’s next Associate Vice Chancellor for Information Technology and Chief Information Officer (AVC-IT & CIO). Larry ’s selection comes after a very competitive, nationwide recruitment guided by a campus search committee that received valuable input from many faculty, staff and student stakeholders across the campus.

Larry brings 40 years of experience in the field of information technology and has a varied background in both university and corporate settings, with extensive experience in research, instructional, and enterprise computing, as well as telecommunications. He comes to Berkeley from the University of North Carolina (UNC), Chapel Hill, where he has served as their Vice Chancellor for Information Technology and Chief Information Officer for the last 5 years, overseeing the Division of Information Technology Services (ITS) as well as setting IT direction and coordinating infrastructure and service delivery across the university. Prior to UNC, he was the first Chief Information Officer at Florida State University (FSU) and served in that role for 10 years. Prior to FSU, he served as an IT Director at Arizona State University for 10 years. He has a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from Iowa State University and a Masters in Computer Science from Arizona State University.

Of particular relevance to Berkeley, at UNC Larry oversaw implementation of a new student information system, updated the campus IT infrastructure despite multi-year budget reductions, implemented major efficiency and cost-saving reforms, and improved coordination and alignment between central IT and the broader campus IT community. This specific experience, as well as his record of accomplishment as a collaborative IT leader with a strong focus on successful execution, and his experience in multiple public institutions, makes him extraordinarily well qualified to help Berkeley meet our many critical strategic goals.

We would also like to acknowledge the tremendous job that Lyle Nevels has done as interim AVC-IT & CIO over the last eight months. Lyle stepped into a challenging position and has won the confidence and respect of the campus with his collaborative can-do approach. We are pleased to announce that he will be staying on with the central IT organization in a redefined Deputy CIO role as Assistant Vice Chancellor for Information Technology and Deputy Chief Information Officer, reporting to Larry. We are also deeply grateful to Rich Lyons, Dean of the Haas School of Business, and his leadership team, for graciously allowing us to leverage Lyle’s strong management skills over this interim period.

Larry will join the campus on February 18, 2013, with Lyle remaining in the interim role until then.

Please join us in welcoming Larry Conrad to the Berkeley campus.

John Wilton, Vice Chancellor for Administration and Finance
George Breslauer, Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost