Greg Smith Hired as Interim Chief Information Officer at WWU

Greg Smith has been hired as interim vice provost for information technology/chief information officer at Western Washington University.

Smith, hired to a one-year interim appointment, will begin work at Western on June 20, 2016. John Lawson, Western’s current vice provost for information technology and CIO, will retire at the end of the 2015-16 school year.

“We’re very pleased that Greg Smith has agreed to serve Western in an interim capacity during this period of transition.  Greg comes to us with a wealth of IT leadership experience, and I’m excited that we will be able to call on his expertise and knowledge as we examine and explore IT options and opportunities, building on retiring CIO John Lawson’s good work, in advance of a search for a permanent CIO in academic year 2016-17,” said Brent Carbajal, Western provost and vice president for Academic Affairs.

Western’s vice provost for information technology and CIO now oversees approximately 70 staff in the areas of Academic Technology and User Services, Enterprise Application Services and Enterprise Infrastructure Services. This includes supervision of administrative computing, telecommunications, academic computing and technical services.

“I am pleased that Provost Carbajal has selected Greg as the interim CIO. Greg is an experienced and respected colleague and he will be a wonderful leader for technology as Western makes this transition,” Lawson said.

Smith has a bachelor’s degree in chemistry and master’s degree in bioinformatics from Indiana University. Previously he served as chief information officer at Missouri University Science and Technology in Rolla, Missouri.; CIO at George Fox University in Newberg, Oregon.; and as director of Computer Network Center and Information Technology at Purdue School of Engineering and Technology at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI). He served as an adjunct professor at George Fox and Purdue universities.

Smith’s private sector experience includes as manager of computer operations for Best Lock Corp., in Indianapolis; as a systems engineer for Hewlett-Packard Engineering, and as director of Computer Services for ACZ (now Montgomery Watson) of Steamboat Springs, Colorado.

Smith, who is now working as a CIO consultant and lives in Hillsboro, Oregon, also has been backpacking sections of the Pacific Crest Trail. His tech/backpacking blog is here.

“I am fortunate to have this opportunity to help shape the future of IT at Western Washington University,” Smith said. “I love to turn a problem into an asset, which could be reengineering a business process or utilizing IT staff more effectively.”