Dear UT community,

As part of our 10-year strategic plan, we are committed to transforming and modernizing our information technology to support our entire community — from faculty conducting cutting-edge research, to students seeking a world-class campus experience, to staff performing at the highest levels.

To help us realize our vision for the future, we created the position of vice president of technology and chief information officer (CIO). Today, I am pleased to announce that Cole Camplese will join The University of Texas at Austin in this role, reporting to me, effective March 11. As CIO, Cole will be a trusted member of the University’s leadership team and will be responsible for developing and implementing a University-wide technology strategy — in partnership with stakeholders across campus — to meet our community’s current and future needs and help advance our research and teaching missions.

Cole has a 25-year-long career as a standout information technology leader in private and public, multicampus research university settings. He also has a proven history of IT leadership, successful enterprise project implementations, and digital transformation and is recognized by his peers as an innovative leader and team builder who delivers on change and drives results.

Most recently, Cole served as the vice president for information technology and CIO at Northeastern University. In this role, he oversaw the successful implementation of academic and business systems, including the Canvas learning management system, the Slate enrollment management platform and the Workday Human Capital Management system.

Previously, Cole held senior leadership roles at the University of Chicago, Stony Brook University and Pennsylvania State University. He has a Bachelor of Arts from West Virginia University and a Master of Science in instructional technology from Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania. Cole has taught various courses on disruptive technologies for teaching and learning and on information, policy and people. Cole has also provided consulting expertise to organizations including Apple, Dell, the Pennsylvania Department of Education and the U.S. Department of Labor. Cole has also been the principal investigator and project associate on various grant-funded research projects in STEM education, digital expression and other information technology fields.

Thank you to Dean David Vanden Bout and Vice President for People and Talent Roger Cude for co-chairing this nationwide search, as well as all the members of the consultative search committee who provided hours of consultation and all who helped vet and interview candidates.

Please join me in welcoming Cole to The University of Texas at Austin! I am excited for the leadership and expertise he will bring to UT as we accelerate the work of transforming our information technology functions to help our students, faculty and staff change the world.

Sincerely yours,

Jay Hartzell
President