Alfred H. Essa
Associate Vice Chancellor and Deputy CIO, Minnesota State Colleges and Universities.

My standard bio:

Alfred Essa is Associate Vice Chancellor and Deputy CIO at Minnesota State Colleges and Universities. His portfolio includes enterprise infrastructure services, identity management, academic systems, analytics, and technology planning for the 32 institutions that comprise MnSCU. He also teaches as an adjunct instructor in Computer Science at St. Paul College.

Prior to joining MnSCU, Alfred served as CIO (1999-2005) at MIT's Sloan School of Management. At MIT he was the Principal Investigator for the iLearn project, a research effort to design .NET-based infrastructure services for a next generation learning system.

He received an MIT Excellence Award in 2005 for Innovative Solutions and MIT Sloan Community Appreciation Awards in 2002 and 2005. While at MIT, Alfred founded the .LRN open source project and served as Chairman of the .LRN Consortium Board (2002-2005).

Alfred graduated with High Honors, Phi Beta Kappa, and Magna Cum Laude from Haverford College. He also holds Masters degrees (M.A. & M. Phil.) from Yale University. In 1982 he served as a Thomas J. Watson Fellow.

Professional Interests:

Of late I have become interested in the following topics: complexity (organizations, systems, projects); analytics; high-touch customer service; organizational innovation.

Personal Interests:

I am an avid distance runner. I train for marathons year around in the lovely state of Minnesota. You can check out my running blog: Rude Mood: Reflections on the Art and Science of Running..

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