Frank Sirianni, Ph.D., chief information officer and vice president of Fordham IT, accepted the award this March at Agenda17: What’s Next In Digital, a leadership conference held in Jacksonville, Florida.

The conference focused on transforming organizations for the digital world; in other words, how to drive institutions forward in a climate that demands higher education institutions and businesses to anticipate what and who will be using its resources.

The Digital Edge 50 award recognizes Fordham IT’s efforts to move the University’s systems (including Banner, the University’s system of record) and databases to the cloud in the summer of 2016. It was a bold step, because most higher education institutions still rely on local servers and adopting a cloud-based strategy, which is already the norm in finance, healthcare, and other sectors.

For more details about why Fordham IT received the Digital Edge 50 award, read “Fordham IT Receives Digital Edge 50 Innovation Award.”

The award, which was bestowed by the technology media, data and marketing services company IDG, was given to organizations engaged in “highly significant projects, impressive business results, and superior collaboration among stakeholders.”

Frank Sirianni, Ph.D., vice president and chief information officer at Fordham, said the cloud strategy involved the forging of a partnership with the firm Ellucian to move the University’s enterprise administrative systems (including enrollment, financial aid, human resources, finance, alumni development, and advancement) from 160 internally managed servers to Amazon Web Services.

“When we did this, we became a fully hosted and managed client. This pioneering effort was the first of its kind for Ellucian and Fordham IT, and resulted in an innovative model for enterprise system implementation and management to be used by other higher education institutions,” he said.

The move made it possible for IT staff to expand their expertise and transition from back-end roles in programming and infrastructure to front-facing, community-oriented ones. Instead of devoting resources to caring for equipment, they were free to place greater emphasis on providing service to the University community.

“Our move to the cloud made our organization more responsive to our community and the University’s broader, Jesuit-based mission, which is transforming education through caring for the whole person. We take that mission seriously,” Sirianni said.

“Moving our systems to managed cloud servers means we no longer need staff to attend to building servers, writing reports, doing backups, recovery and business continuity, and so on. Twelve staff members now have completely new roles in areas such as analytics, business analysts, vendor and cloud vendor management, solution integration, and contract negotiation. Staff also spends more time collaborating with faculty and students to further the university’s teaching and research mission.”

The partnership with Ellucian is unique for academic institutions, and Sirianni said he’s especially proud of the fact that the cloud computing strategy has lead to a software-as-a- service (SaaS) development partner group that includes four other institutions. The goal of the new group is to help other institutions of higher learning replicate this new customer-oriented model.

“Such a model will bring higher education institutions in alignment with the technology demands of students, faculty and staff, now and in the future,” he said.

The annual award honors rising stars in IT as identified and sponsored by the chief information officers (CIOs) of leading organizations, according to the magazine’s website.

Benedict was nominated by Frank Sirianni, Ph.D., vice president and CIO at Fordham. His entry was selected among more than 4,000 nominations worldwide to receive one of 25 awards.

“Jason’s passion for his work and his contributions to Fordham drove him to a rapid and successful development of his area—a new department at the University,” Sirianni said. “He is caring and careful in the development of his team, creating the desired multiplier effect of his efforts.

“We are proud to celebrate his recognition for his role in Fordham’s stature as a world-class IT organization. I congratulate Jason and the entire IT team,” Sirianni said.

Benedict received the award at a gala presented by CIO Magazine on May 3 in Colorado Springs, Colo.

“The notion of protecting something you care about is what drives me,” he said. “Still, I couldn’t do this job as well or as effectively if I wasn’t protecting an organization that hits so close to home. I have a genuine love and concern for all things Fordham.”

As the chief of technological security at Fordham, Benedict and his team are responsible for protecting the University from hackers, viruses, worms, spam, phishing schemes and identity theft.

More importantly, Benedict said, he oversees the mitigation of all risk to University data and spends a good deal of time championing the strategic value of IT security as a mechanism for Fordham to differentiate itself and gain competitive advantage.

He is a long-time partner with the New York Electronic Crimes Task Force, a consortium between the NYPD and U.S. Secret Service. He is also a member of the FBI’s Infragard, in which private institutions and the FBI collaborate on homeland security issues.

Benedict said that his job at Fordham is done well when no one has any reason to notice it. In the past decade, however, many people have begun to think more about IT security thanks to identity theft.

“Facebook and eBay and e-mail—these things are not what people are talking about anymore,” he said. “Today, everyone’s thinking about how to protect themselves online.”

Although he is a veteran of IT security, Benedict’s career has always focused on protecting people and the items they hold dear. Before working with computers, he was a locksmith for the New York Police Department, and before that, he was an alarm and security specialist for a private company.

“I’ve always tried to figure out how to get around obstacles, and then spent my time mitigating those risks,” he said.

Benedict came to Fordham 18 years ago, and has held several positions, including director of computer services and assistant director of information systems and planning at Fordham Law.

He remains a licensed and bonded locksmith in the State of New York.

Joseph McLaughlin

Sirianni is recognized in the magazine’s December issue, which highlights the accomplishments of those who have “used technology to have a positive impact on their organization.”

According to the magazine, “In the five-year budget he sent to the University’s board of directors, [Sirianni] vowed to further reduce energy, paper and printing costs by seven figures.”

“It’s my personal mission to come up with new sources of revenue or ways to save money,” Sirianni told Computerworld.

Describing his leadership philosophy, he said, “Teach the corporate strategies; model the desired behavior; build teams with shared accountability. Clearly articulate the vision and lay out the path to meeting them.”

According to the Computerworld Web site, a premier IT leader is an individual who guides the effective use of information technology to improve his or her company’s business performance.

The 78 men and 22 women who make up this year’s Premier 100 list are vice presidents, CIOs, directors and managers from several IT sectors—network management, database management, intranet and Web management and help desk, among others. All were nominated from across the industry—from vendors and IT users as well as public relations and marketing professionals.

More than 1,000 nominations for the 2009 list were collected in April and May. Computerworld editors invited the nominees to complete a comprehensive management/leadership questionnaire online during June and July. The candidates were asked about a range of topics, including their backgrounds, work experiences, special accomplishments, leadership styles, technology priorities and strategies and other details about the IT environments they have fostered at their companies.

The magazine described the men and women who make up the list as “collaborators and consolidators. They are environmental and social policy leaders at their organizations. They tend to ignore well-worn lines of demarcation between business and consumer technology and are supporting blogs, wikis, iPhones and social networks. They deploy what works rather than what’s politically safe.”

Sirianni, who has been at Fordham since 2005, told Computerworld he eventually would like to hold the titles of president and CEO. He described his job in the field of information technology as “coordinating creative people at disciplined tasks.”

Before coming to Fordham, Sirianni served as the vice president and chief information officer at the State University of New York’s Fashion Institute of Technology. He began his career in educational administration in 1981 as the director of research and information and dean of freshmen at Ramapo College in New Jersey.

“In light of his wide experience and his proven record in the field of information technology, I am confident that he will be an effective leader for our IT staff, and a resource for the entire University community,” said Joseph M. McShane, S.J., president of Fordham University.

Most recently, Sirianni served as the vice president and chief information officer at the State University of New York’s Fashion Institute of Technology. He began his career in educational administration in 1981 as the director of research and information and dean of freshmen at Ramapo College in New Jersey.

After 10 years at Ramapo and a short tenure as a private consultant, Sirianni was named the associate vice president for planning and information technology at Suffolk Community College on Long Island.  In 1994, he was appointed the chief information officer at Saint John’s University, and was later promoted to vice president for planning and new business initiatives.

Sirianni received his bachelor’s degree in sociology from Queens College of the City University of New York, and his master’s and doctoral degrees in sociology from Stony Brook University.