Biography

Mr. David Sliman is the Chief Information Officer (CIO) for the University of Southern Mississippi (USM) in the Information Technology Services department. His central IT office consists of 80 employees and multiple student workers. As CIO, Sliman is responsible for the academic and administrative technical needs of approximately 14,000 students and 2,800 faculty and staff in several counties in south Mississippi. Departments reporting to the CIO include Enterprise Technology Planning, Technology Finance and Administration, Technology Operations and Infrastructure, Technology Security Office, and Technology Support Services.

Mr. Sliman has been a member of the USM technical staff since 1997. He was integral in the rebuilding of the technical infrastructure of all the USM Gulf Coast teaching sites after hurricane Katrina and the modernization of the USM Technology and Data Center in Hattiesburg. He was involved in the creation of the Mississippi Optical Network (MissiON) and serves as the spokesperson for the state university CIOs for Internet2. He is a member of multiple university committees and is the EDUCAUSE primary representative for USM.

Prior to USM, Mr. Sliman was co-founder, president, and CEO of Southwind Technologies, a computer integration company and one of the first internet service providers on the MS Gulf Coast. Mr. Sliman worked for several contractors at the NASA Stennis Space Center as a scientific programmer, database administrator, and network specialist for NASA, the Naval Oceanographic Office, and the Naval Research Laboratory. Mr. Sliman helped develop database and network disaster recovery strategies and business continuity plans.

Mr. Sliman served as a past president of the Mississippi Chapter of InfraGard, a national public/private partnership with the FBI, working on the protection of critical infrastructures. He has been involved in the annual Mississippi Region VI Science and Engineering fair and the Mississippi Coastal Cleanup for almost three decades. He currently serves as the Director of the regional Science Fair and Zone Captain for the Coastal Cleanup.

The Ocean Springs, Mississippi native graduated from Louisiana State University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science and has a Master of Business Administration from the University of Southern Mississippi.