Biography
Mike Eleey is Drexel University’s Lead Consultant for the Digital On-Ramps (DOR) Project, a collaborative network of the Mayor's Office of Philadelphia, Drexel, employers, and the region’s major youth and adult literacy and workforce development agencies. Committed to improving the system of training and workforce services, DOR places learners and jobseekers at the center of the system, and with appropriate technologies, strives to connect them with personally relevant programs, postsecondary education resources and employment opportunities.
Mike was previously Chief Technology Officer of the W. P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University, supporting over 10,000 students and 500 faculty and staff at the nation’s second-largest business school. Innovations developed on his watch enabled the School to manage rapid enrollment growth, introduced CRM to consolidate customer data, and drove productivity and quality improvement through process redesign across the student life cycle. A board member and frequent presenter at Technology in Business Schools Roundtable conferences, he has also presented elsewhere on CRM’s potential for organizational innovation.
From 2006 to 2009 Mike also served as Managing Director of the W. P. Carey School’s fledgling MBA Online program. The business strategy he implemented more than doubled enrollment, tripled net revenues, and propelled the program to national prominence. He has presented on the model’s success at the Eduventures Online Higher Education Collaborative and at the Annual Part-Time MBA Conference.
Previously, as Senior VP for technology commercialization at investment bank Communications Equity Associates he built relationships with university consortia, research parks, economic development agencies, technology companies and education sector firms, and developed multilateral partnerships with NASA and with universities in Europe and Asia. He spoke frequently on university-business partnerships at industry conferences hosted by Reed Midem, IIR, NACUBO, University Business Magazine, the University Professional and Continuing Education Association, Eduventures, and Educause.
Earlier, as Associate Vice Provost at the University of Pennsylvania, Mike reorganized central academic technology and user support, implementing new service paradigms in a university-wide IT restructuring driven by client goals. At Penn he was also the Provost’s point executive for distributed learning, working with Deans to create new distance learning and professional education programs across the university and developing partnerships with technology and education firms to accelerate these initiatives. While at Penn, he delivered presentations on organizational development in IT for Educause and the Snowmass Seminars, and on digital learning for the Association of Research Libraries, Educational Testing Service and others. He also helped to found the multi-university Research Channel consortium, and organized strategic conferences for leaders from education, government and business, including Higher Education in the Information Age (www.upenn.edu/heia).
Mike has an M.A. in communications research from the Annenberg School at Penn, and an M.B.A. with distinction from the Wharton School.
