itmWEB: Russ Finney, Information Technology Speaker
Russ Finney
innovation [ culture ] technology
Russ Finney currently serves as the US Vice President of one of
the world's largest semiconductor production equipment manufacturers providing chip making machines to companies like Intel, IBM, AMD, Texas Instruments, Motorola, Fujitsu, NEC, Phillips, and Samsung. While at TEL, Russ served as a part of the core Austin, Texas based US start-up team which achieved a growth in annual US revenues in the sales and service business from two hundred million dollars to over one billion dollars from 1994 to 2001. During this time the US operations of TEL also created or acquired over a dozen companies which focused on high tech manufacturing, R&D, and software development. TEL now has revenues in excess of eight billion dollars worldwide.
Prior to his current IT executive position, Russ spent seven years as an information technology consultant with the firm of Ernst & Young working with clients such as Sprint, Texaco, Air Liquide, KN Energy, and Penzoil. Based on those experiences he authored and published dozens of articles about project management and systems development.
Tech Interviews
Interview with Ara Celi at InnoTech in 2010
Interview with Kimberlie Dykeman at SXSW Interactive 2008
New York World BPO/ITO Forum panel interview in 2010
Many of the projects with which he has been involved have been noted in white papers by infor,
Metrix, IBM,
Pemeco, Concur,
Enigma, and Catapult Systems.
The IBM related Global eBusiness web portal project was documented by Dr. Lynda Applegate and turned into a case study which is used by the Harvard Business School.
He has also been invited for the last five years to be a guest lecturer within the MBA program at the
University of Texas, and he also currently serves on the
Texas State CIS Advisory Board to help in the development of both degree curriculums and outreach programs.
In the past he has served on similar boards at the University of Houston and at the Texas State Technical College.
Over the years, Russ Finney has been a frequent information technology
speaker at various local and national events on many technology and IT related topics including:
Panel discussion at the NASSCOM India Leadership Forum
He has also spoken overseas in both Japan and the United Kingdom. In February of 2009 he was a featured speaker at the NASSCOM conference in Mumbai, India. The same year he was also a keynote Speaker for USAA’s Nexus Distinguished Speakers Series.
Russ also served as the Conference Chairperson for Austin Innotech in both 2004 and 2005. He continues to serve on the advisory board for the event.
He also served as the Co-Chair of the 2008 and 2009 OutsourceWorld conferences which were held at the Jacob Javits Convention Center in New York City. He is on the advisory board for this event as well.
Russ
served as a member of the National Board of Directors of the
Association of Information Technology Professionals (AITP) from 2000 through 2003. In the past, he also served as a President of both the Houston AITP chapter in 1994 and the Austin AITP chapter in 1999. He periodically contributed to the Quality Observer Magazine as an Associate Editor, and he served as a columnist for the AITP national magazine Information Executive.
AITP National Board of Directors - 2003 Craig Kennedy, Russ Finney, Rick Piunti, Brian Reithel, Chris Leja, Coney Barre,
David Feinstein, Jerry Buckland, Kevin Jetton, Mary Reager, Nita Adams,
Sam Luke, Darlene Hite, George Koscho
Russ also served on the Board of Directors for several central Texas technology and education organizations including the AusTech Alliance in 2008 and 2009, a part of the Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce. He is a past advisory board member for both the Austin Technology Council in 2006 and 2007 as well as the University of Texas Professional Development Center.
He also served under an appointment from the Texas Supreme Court in 2009 on the "Task Force to Ensure Judicial Readiness in Times of Emergency", which was chartered to begin the design and implementation of an emergency program to prevent or manage disrupted court operations throughout the State of Texas.
Russ is a graduate of Oklahoma State University with a BS/BA in Management Science and Computer Systems.
