Last modified: Friday, July 13, 2007
Brad Wheeler named vice president for information technology
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 13, 2007
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Indiana University President Michael McRobbie today (July 13) named Bradley C. Wheeler vice president for information technology. Wheeler is IU acting chief information officer and dean of information technology for IU Bloomington and a professor of information systems in the Kelley School of Business.
Wheeler, who will succeed McRobbie as vice president for information technology, has been a member of IU's information technology leadership team for the last five years, assuming several roles during that span, including associate dean of teaching and learning IT, associate vice president for research and academic computing, associate vice president for community source initiatives, and acting CIO. As acting CIO, Wheeler provided overall leadership for University Information Technology Services with a focus on strategic and priority initiatives. His new appointment is subject to the approval of the IU Board of Trustees.
"Information technology has transformed the way research institutions think and operate, and investments in IT infrastructure are essential. Since taking over responsibility for IT from me in January 2006, Brad has continued to lead the way toward identifying key investments and partnership opportunities and developing Indiana University's cyberinfrastructure to support our goals in teaching and research, especially in the life sciences, and I am delighted to name him as my successor," McRobbie said. "He has also been a major contributor to the ongoing dialogue among some of the world's foremost researchers and scholars about how information technology, particularly digital networks, can best be utilized to support the unique needs of higher education."
Wheeler is highly regarded within Indiana, nationally and internationally for fostering new models of collaboration that have changed the economics of information technology in higher education.
He led IU's collaboration with the Indiana Economic Development Corp., Purdue University and IBM, which resulted in a doubling of capacity for IU's Big Red supercomputer. He also guided efforts to establish the Information Commons, a dynamic hub that integrates traditional library materials with state-of-the-art technology, at the Herman B Wells Library on the IU Bloomington campus.
"It is an honor to be selected as Michael McRobbie's successor for the IU vice president for IT," Wheeler said. "During the past 10 years Michael has made IU arguably the leading university in the country for the uses and applications of IT. Our goal is to sustain this lead and ensure IT serves the research, teaching and economic development needs of Indiana. As vice president for information technology, I will continue to aggressively partner and collaborate with our faculty, schools, state government and the commercial sector to fulfill the mission of Indiana University."
Wheeler is widely recognized as a pioneer for the "community source" model of pooled investment, which encourages universities and software developers to collaborate on building software tailored to academia. With $6.8 million in funding from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, he and partners from the University of Michigan, MIT, Stanford and other institutions co-founded the Sakai Foundation in 2003 to develop open source software for higher education. He currently sits on the board of the Sakai Foundation. He also helped establish and is the chairman of the Kuali Foundation, which has extended the community source model to the development of information systems for higher education's financial needs as well as research administration and a total of over $20 million in pooled development.
As a professor, Wheeler has published extensively in research journals for IT in higher education and taught many international executive education programs for companies. As an administrator, he has published a series of articles on IT leadership for 21st century universities.
He received his Ph.D. in information systems from the IU Kelley School of Business in 1993. A native of Hinton, Okla., he received both his bachelor's and MBA degrees from Oklahoma State University.
