On the left, Matthew Calais, CIO & Senior VP, Administrative Operations, Legacy Health System,
winner IT Executive of the Year (Private Sector).
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2006 Portland IT Executives of the Year
April 20, 2006
On April 19, 2006, the Portland Society for Information Management (SIM) presented their annual Portland IT Executive of the Year Awards in conjunction with the Oregon InnoTech - the region's largest gathering of IT executives, educators & vendors. The InnoTech/SIM awards ceremony was held at the Portland Convention Center, and it was attended by over one hundred area IT professionals. Keith Bearden of Virtual Information Executives served as the master of ceremonies of the event.
As the premier network for senior IT executives and thought leaders, SIM recognizes the efforts of local IT executives to innovate and contribute to their organizations. These recipients have demonstrated the implementation of innovative technology, active participation in enhancing his/her organization’s competitive advantage, and leadership in the IT community.
A special award was given during the lumcheon during the CIO conference. The "2006 Mayor's Technology Award" was given by Portland Mayor Tom Potter to City of Portland CTO Matthew Lampe for his “exceptional innovation in technology". Lampe was instrumental in the “Unwire Portland” initiative designed to bring a wireless network to the City of Portland to lower cost of Internet access for city and government as well as to provide wireless Internet access for Portland citizens.
The Oregon InnoTech is a private conference and exhibition built for Business and Technology Executives, guided and directed by local Executives. The intention is to provide the most comprehensive and collaborative Information Technology event for the regions leading executives in a two-day format. InnoTech directed by the region's most distinguished business and technology leaders (who form InnoTech's Advisory Council) and significant technology related organizations.
The primary sponsors of the event were Easystreet Pro, Dell, Intel, Sprint, Tata, and Time Warner Telecom. Two major awards were presented: the Portland IT Executive of the Year - Private Sector and the Portland IT Executive of the Year - Public Sector.
Matthew Calais, CIO & Senior VP, Administrative Operations, Legacy Health System, named Portland IT Executive of the Year (Private Sector)
Matthew Calais understands that information access isn't just something that keeps business running smoothly. It's also a matter of life and death when one's talking about health care.
Calais, chief information officer and senior vice president at Legacy Health System, is responsible for the implementation of Legacy's physician portal. The portal provides the system's more than 900 physicians with access to clinical applications, administrative information, clinical knowledge resources, and collaboration tools.
Keeping the information infrastructure running smoothly at Legacy hasn't been Calais' only recent role. He served as interim president and chief executive officer from October 2005 through January 2006.
Calais hasn't just confined himself to working within Legacy. He partnered with Kryptiq, a local medical technology company, to insure that patient records could be delivered via the Internet while meeting federal privacy requirements.
Along with his role at Legacy, Calais is a charter member of the Oregon CIO Alliance and belongs to the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society and College of Healthcare Information Management Executives.
Ida Salazar, VP, Information & Communication Technology, AAA Oregon/Idaho was named runner-up for the award.
Curt Pederson, Vice-Provost & CIO, Oregon State University, named Portland IT Executive of the Year (Public Sector)
Curt Pederson saw an opening and seized it.
The Oregon State University technology leader took a gamble on open source software that's been paying off nicely for his employer.
In 2004, Pederson took a half-million dollars and used it to stimulate growth at OSU's Open Source Lab. The laboratory's students and full-time staff focus and software development, consulting and hosting of some of the world's largest open source projects. For instance, the lab is home to half of Mozilla's core architecture and the Firefox browser. The lab has also released over 150 million downloads.
Over its existence, the lab has become the world's largest host site of open source applications and community Linux releases It averages 30 million to 50 million unique "virtual" visitors every day.
With a track record like that it's no wonder the lab was chosen to host theoriginal Linux kernal, the Holy Grail of open source development.
The stated goal for the lab is to promote collaborations by nurturing and developing software projects among like-minded institutions. The current focus is on driving open source development into the government realm.
In addition to his role at OSU, Pederson is the state university's systems chief information officer; he serves on the Oregon Telecommunications Coordinating Council; represents the higher education chancellor on the stae's CIO Council; and is a member of the Portland CIO Council.
Curt Amo, Assistant Director, Administrative Services, Oregon Employment Department was named runner-up for the award.
Portland InnoTech Focused on IT Educational Offerings
The educational programs at InnoTech are designed to meet the needs of IT Leaders, providing the latest information that companies need to make solid and sound technology decisions. InnoTech presents a wide variety of speaking opportunities across the technology themes that are relevant to the region. By design, the educational programs provide a forum for the exchange of ideas and networking peer-to-peer.
Industry experts who present at Innotech are widely regarded in the IT community. The goal of the InnoTech educational program is to feature speakers who are objective and dynamic, and who will work with the InnoTech team to most effectively educate the regional IT leaders. InnoTech educational program attendees expect a technology focus and are highly critical of speakers who lapse into product promotion.
Photos and a summary of Past Awards Events:
