Mr Thomas S Ireland

Rules for Information Technology Leaders Mr Thomas S Ireland

Publisher Marketing: The purpose of this book is to help IT organizations, and the enterprises they support, achieve greatness and be excellent work environments for employees. This greatness can only be achieved if there is excellent leadership. It is clear that business leaders are increasingly aware that technology can enable positive business change. Those business leaders who understand this best are demanding that their CIO and IT team become entrenched in the business planning process and be change agents for the business. This requires excellent senior IT leadership that can effectively lead technology teams that produce a product that enhances the ability of the core enterprise be winners in their market segment. Excellent information technology leaders have an aptitude for establishing great relationships with their team and with lateral managers. They are interested in producing a product that integrates with the enterprise. These are people who have a greater desire to coach their team than to make themselves looks good based on the results of their team. The CIO and team who bring the full power of technology value to the business will dramatically improve the enterprise's position in their industry and the position of the IT team in their enterprise. This book helps the information technologist understand the characteristics of information technology leadership and what it takes to be an effective leader of information technology teams. Contributor Bio:  Ireland, MR Thomas S Tom received his BS in Electronics Engineering and a minor in mathematics from Oklahoma State University. While there, he published his first paper in "The Oklahoma State Engineer." That paper won first place in a Big Eight Universities competition. Tom accepted a commission in the United States Air Force. While an Air Force Officer, and later as a Department of Defense civilian, he managed technology program management teams responsible for communications and electronics installations in the Middle East, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio and other military installations in the Ohio region. His Plans and Programs duties included disaster preparedness; survival, recovery, reconstitution and war planning. After leaving the Air Force, Tom went to work for a technology division of the Mead Corporation responsible for designing and operating their networks in support of what was at that time the world's largest on-line, full-text search and retrieval data base. He eventually moved to Mead Corporate Staff where he successfully integrated their network operations and directed the modernization of the corporation's client computing services systems. He participated in a Vision Team which successfully established a long term IT Vision for the corporation. Tom later went to work for CompuServe/UUNet. Over three years he integrated the operations of their Class A web hosting data centers while the operation was expanding from three to twenty data centers across North America. Most recently, Tom contributed his experience to his local community as the Chief Technology Officer for a team supporting several cities in southwestern Ohio. In this role he provided technology support to the regional Tactical Crime Suppression Unit and the Organized Crime Task Force. He has been featured in a cover article in "Wireless for the Corporate User," and has been published in "Telecommunications Magazine" and "Community Media Review." He is co-author of an AT&T Labs paper presented in Munich, served as the Bell Labs liaison for the Mead Corporation and has been personally highlighted in an AT&T annual report as an example of collaborative customer innovation. Tom is married with four children and a growing number of grandchildren. These days he is indulging a life-long desire to share his experiences by writing on a number of subjects reflecting his broad range of interests.