John Charles

Biography

Prior to MIT, John served as the Chief Operating Officer (COO) for the Corporation for Education Network Initiatives in California (CENIC) – a non-profit corporation providing advanced technology support, as well as national and international high bandwidth connectivity services for the University of California System, Stanford University, Caltech, the University of Southern California, the California State University System, the California Community College System, California K-12, plus a number of smaller private universities and colleges. Prior to CENIC, John served as Chief Information Officer (CIO) at California State University, East Bay, where he led the university's strategic shift to the delivery of technology-as-a-service. John partnered with the Deans and VPs, and collaborated with the IT governance and advisory committees, to optimize the positioning and alignment of the university’s central and distributed portfolio of IT resources, systems, services, and projects – an initiative that focused laser-like attention on the institution’s strategic directions for accelerating innovation; enhancing faculty research, scholarship and student learning outcomes; expanding the institution’s capacity to respond to the changing context and expectations of higher education; and meeting the university’s evolving instructional technology needs within labs, classrooms and other types of on-grounds and online teaching, learning and research spaces. John has been active in advancing broadband network access for K-20 research and education communities within the State of California, nationally, and internationally -- having served on CENIC’s Board of Directors for thirteen years, and on the Internet Educational Equal Access Foundation (IEEAF) Board of Directors for eleven years. Prior to moving to California, John served as an IT director at Harvard University – where he played a key leadership role in building university-wide consensus and support for the successful implementation of a number of common infrastructure initiatives. His career as a user, manager and student of information technology also included several years of experience planning and implementing shared technology infrastructures within the Department of Defense, plus three years of teaching experience as a member of the engineering faculty at the U.S. Military Academy, West Point. He received his B.S. in Engineering Science and Mechanics, and his M.S. in Engineering Science, Computer Science & Applied Mathematics from the University of Florida.

EDUCAUSE Presentations