John A. Bielec

John A. Bielec, Ph.D., is Vice-President for Information Resources and Technology/CIO, at Drexel University. Dr. Bielec also served concurrently, in a unique management arrangement, as the CIO at MCP Hahnemann University.  Drexel is known as Philadelphia’s technological university while MCP Hahnemann was the largest private School of Medicine in the US. MCP Hahnemann was later acquired by Drexel University representing one of the most complex higher education organizational and technological transformations ever implemented.

In 2000, Drexel became the first major university to operate a fully wireless campus.  In 2002, the University launched DrexelOne Mobile, the first wireless Web portal service for students extending campus IT service boundaries to any web enabled mobile device. In 2007, Drexel in partnership with Earthlink, expanded free wireless connectivity to the Drexel community anywhere within the Philadelphia Wireless cloud.  Today, Drexel has over 35,000 registered wireless users.

Pursuing a strategy based on strategic collaboration, Drexel, in a Software as a Service (SaaS) arrangement, provides IT services to a growing number of schools including Cabrini College, Neumann College, Medaille College, and Cumberland University.  As an SAP Super Competency Center, Drexel has provided SAP academic, application SaaS to over 30 Colleges and University Business Schools in the US and UK. Drexel is one of 23 connectors to the high-speed Internet2 network and provides I2 connectivity to the 14 Universities of Pennsylvania’s State System of HE.

Prior to coming to Drexel, Bielec served in many academic and administrative posts including interim Vice Chancellor at the University of Maryland College Park.  He holds a doctorate degree from the School of Public Affairs at Maryland in Public Policy and Administration. He is a frequent speaker at national and international conferences on information technology as an agent of organizational change, educational policy, and strategic planning.   Bielec has extensive international experience and previously served as a Fulbright at the University of Warwick, UK

Dr. Bielec has received many awards including both the Computerworld and CIO Magazine business world’s Premier 100 IT leaders.  Bielec was also appointed Philadelphia’s CIO of the Year by the Eastern Technology Council as well as a 2006’s Technology Innovator by Campus Technology.  Bielec was appointed by Microsoft Corporation as a founding member of the Higher Education Advisory Group and serves on a number of other advisory groups including the SunGard HE CIO advisory committee, University Business editorial board, the Philadelphia CIO Summit executive committee and the Board of Trustee’s of the Commission on Graduates of Foreign Nursing Schools.  Dr. Bielec serves as the United States liaison to EUNIS (European University Information Systems Organization).

For more information please see http://www.pages.drexel.edu/~jbielec