Biography
Richard Germano is the Senior Director and Chief Operating Officer for Information Technology Services. He is responsible for IT business and day-to-day operations supporting electronic messaging, application hosting, and telecommunications services; as well as organizational oversight and leadership. Rich joined Vanderbilt in May, 2004.
While at Vanderbilt, Rich has led development and execution of major process improvements resulting in a substantial savings to the IT operation. Rich led an aggressive business assessment comprised of organization, process, and finance that established baseline and plan for strategic product and services realignment to the Vanderbilt mission. He assumed a pivotal role in the development of IT Best Practices for IT operations and staff development and led the development of a Capital Management and Leasing program to re-mediate capital asset underfunding issues. His current responsibilities include steering ITS’s planning lifecycle including governing all resources, business processes, and strategic management; as well as leading efforts to multi-source IT services. Additional responsibilities include ITS Human Resource, Finance, and executive sponsorship for ITS’s Living Disaster Recovery program.
Before joining Vanderbilt, Rich was a Senior Vice President at Bank of America, and a Service Delivery Manager in the bank’s Wealth and Investment Management division.
Rich began his career in 1991 with the AA Blueprint Company, where he was a technology consultant to CAD/CAM and manufacturing operations throughout Ohio and West Virginia. In 1993, Rich became an independent consultant and project manager, providing technology services to businesses across northeast Ohio. His clients included manufacturing and service shops, non-profit organizations, and a higher education institute.
In 1997, Rich accepted a position with The Scott Company. Rich managed and supported implementations at Scott’s Miracle-Gro campus in New York and satellite sales and support offices around the United States. He also provided executive support to senior executives at the Marysville campus and as they traveled globally.
In 1998, Rich was recruited out of Columbus, Ohio by Bank of America (NationsBank), accepting a position as a Systems Engineer in support of the Wealth and Investment Management division. He relocated to Charlotte, NC and began work on the division's Windows NT implementation, eventually taking over management of the North and South Carolina migration. He was the leader of several national projects, including infrastructure growth initiatives and network consolidations for the Wealth and Investment Management division. During the 1999 Bank of America/NationsBank merger, Rich led the migration and conversion of the Capital Management Group's west coast locations and the infrastructure consolidation of Wealth and Investment Management.
In 2001, Rich was promoted to Senior Vice President and accepted the position of Service Delivery Manager for the Wealth and Investment Management division. He supported infrastructure products and services and led infrastructure financial transparency efforts. Rich led a team of service delivery and project managers for operations in New York City, San Francisco, Charlotte, Los Angeles, Dallas, St. Louis, and the Cayman Islands. In his role as Service Delivery Manager, Rich sponsored and secured funding for several key technology initiatives. These began Wealth and Investment Management’s migration toward Blade server technology, ultimately resulting in cost reductions through server consolidation. In addition, Rich oversaw the design and deployment of a Highly Available Unix shared environment that prepared the business for several new growth initiatives. While leading his team, Rich also championed several Six Sigma Greenbelt projects and created an initiative forecasting model that became a benchmark for Initiative forecasting.
Rich holds a Bachelors of Business Administration and is completing a Masters in Management a
