Biography

Brian D. Voss serves as Vice President and Chief Information Officer at Clemson University, assuming this role in an interim capacity in May 2021 and appointed fully to the position by the Clemson Board of Trustees in February 2022.  Brian has over 40 years of leadership experience in information technology, both in higher education and in the private sector. Brian consults and provides commentary and insights on leadership and information technology in higher education.

Career Overview:

Brian ended his "Phase-One" CIO career at the University of Maryland in 2014, having served as its vice president for information technology (2011-2014).  However, he subsequently served in interim CIO/VP roles at both Case Western Reserve University (2014) and Clemson University (2016-17).  Between 2005 and 2011, Brian served as Vice Chancellor for Information Technology and CIO for Louisiana State University at the flagship campus in Baton Rouge, where while leading the central IT organization he also had oversight of the Louisiana Board of Regents' Louisiana Library Network (LOUIS) initiative and oversight of operations for the Regents' Louisiana Optical Networking Initiative (LONI). `Before his time at LSU, he was part of IT organizations at Indiana University for nearly 20 years, culminating in his appointment as Associate Vice President (Telecommunications). He served as Chief Operating Officer of the Pervasive Technology Labs at Indiana University in the early 2000s, and nearly two decades later returned to serve as Interim Executive Director of the Pervasive Technology Institute (2020-2021).

Community Engagement and Leadership:

During his career, Brian served the higher education IT community in various roles.  He was the first (and only) EDUCAUSE Presidential Fellow through July 2014, serving the association and the community of higher education IT professionals as a knowledgeable and experienced voice, clearly articulating the critical role, via his articles and editorials (https://er.educause.edu/channels/got-a-minute)  that information technology plays in addressing the transformation of higher education in the face of the disruption underway. Brian served on the EDUCAUSE Board of Directors (2011-2014) and also on the Board of the Kuali Foundation (2012-2014). Past service to the community included: An elected member of the Southeastern Universities Research Association (SURA) IT Steering Committee; A member of Microsoft's Higher Education Advisory Group; Co-Chair of the EDUCAUSE/Internet2 Higher Education Information Security Council (HEISC); Deputy Chair and a founding member of the REN-ISAC Executive Advisory Group; An elected CIO representative to the Internet2 Architecture and Operations Advisory Council, and member of the Internet2 Abilene Executive Committee; A member of the LONI Management Council and served as their representative to the National LambdaRail (NLR) Board of Directors (he was also involved in the founding of NLR in 2003, representing the Committee on Institutional Cooperation [CIC] CIO group from his position at Indiana University). 

Cyberinfrastructure and IT Support of Research:

Brian has been a leader in developing campus and regional-level cyberinfrastructure. He was a contributor to the report from the Task Force on Campus Bridging as an appointed member of the NSF's Advisory Committee for Cyberinfrastructure. While at Maryland, he was PI on a grant from the NSF CC-NIE program, for Software Defined Networking, and was involved in separate NSF grant awards that helped bring Indiana and Purdue Universities into the NSF "TeraGrid" environment in 2003 and a similar effort bringing Louisiana elements into the TeraGrid in 2007. He has been a Principal Investigator (PI) or Co-PI on projects awarded more than $15 million from the NSF. In 2019-2021, Brian led a Microsoft-funded $1-million research initiative, based at Indiana University, to examine the critical role that people (humanware) plays in the adoption and successful use of cloud-based cyberinfrastructure in the advancing research at universities.

Groundbreaking Approaches in IT:

Throughout his career, Brian has been part of several ground-breaking IT initiatives, including enterprise software licensing strategies employed by major vendors (like Microsoft), institution-wide life-cycle funding for faculty/staff computing equipment, LSU's program for credit monitoring with Equifax, and LSU's migration to the open-source Moodle learning management system. He has long been very involved in cybersecurity initiatives throughout his career, as well as gaining recognition in the area of disaster recovery planning following experiences in Louisiana with Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. At Clemson, Brian has led efforts to rebuild research computing and data operations in support of the advancement of the institutions research capabilities, enhance cybersecurity in increasingly threatening times, and define the critical need for funding to address ‘Tech Debt’ in information technology infrastructure and support.  More recently, he has been involved in the initiation of an Artificial Intelligence (AI) initiative, including adapting the enterprise licensing concept for AI tools and support, and has also been intensely involved in Clemson’s efforts to obtain a Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC – Level-2) to support government agency research and contract opportunities in support of Clemson’s efforts to increase its research portfolio in this area.

Publications and Awards:

Brian's publication and presentation contributions span a broad set of topics, including cyberinfrastructure and high-performance computing environments, IT-enabled research, IT-enabled teaching and learning, telecommunications and advanced research networking, administrative deployment of IT systems, IT support and pervasive computing, economic development impact of IT, IT leadership, IT strategic planning, IT security and policy, and disaster impacts on business/IT continuity planning. He led initiatives that were recognized for excellence by EDUCAUSE for IU's work in advanced networks (I-Light) and online IT support systems (IU's Support Knowledgebase).

Brian is an engineer by training, graduated from Purdue University with a degree in Industrial Engineering.

Keep up with Brian on LinkedIn at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/briandvoss/