Sam Steinhardt

Sam Steinhardt is assistant vice president of University IT’s Strategic Initiatives. In addition to his ongoing oversight of the UIT Project Management Office, Service Management and Business Relations, and ServiceNow Business Operations teams, Sam leads or co-leads several strategic, campus-wide initiatives. Examples include Google Workspace Optimization, Faculty Affairs Systems Evaluation and Discovery, Enterprise Learning Management Discovery, IT Service Management Maturity Assessment and Improvement, and more.

Sam has been at Stanford since 1999. Prior to joining IT Services in 2006, Sam was the executive director of the Stanford Center for Innovations in Learning and Wallenberg Hall, which provided advanced resource classrooms and state-of-the-art facilities for research in learning and education, both locally and in collaboration with international partners. Since 2006, as “central IT” has evolved, he’s held leadership responsibilities for a range of administrative support functions and projects.

What gets you going every day (besides coffee/tea/alarm clock), and what keeps you motivated?

In my professional lifetime I’ve experienced and seen the impact of the personal computer, the internet, mobile devices, and cloud computing. Every one of these technologies came with both great promise and healthy skepticism. And now we get to experience and see the impact of artificial intelligence. Isn’t that enough to get me going every day? Seriously, I love trying to solve complex challenges. Since there’s an endless river of these challenges in a technology organization and in life in general, I have plenty to motivate (and sometimes exhaust) me!

What IT initiatives/programs/goals are you most interested in pursuing in the next 2-3 years?

The answer is “many!” I’m interested in solving the Google Workspace riddle, standing up new systems to support faculty, negotiating enterprise agreements for artificial intelligence capabilities, advancing data governance, and the list goes on…

How do your colleagues and team members help you achieve your vision? What challenges do you face?

The answer is: they do all the heavy lifting! The challenge here is to keep helping our employees develop the capabilities they’d like to advance their careers, while at the same time retaining them. As Richard Branson said, “Train people well enough so they can leave. Treat them well enough so they don't want to.”

How do you decompress outside of work?

I love to take long walks and hikes with my wife. I binge-watch all kinds of shows - recent favorites include the Bear, a Gentleman in Moscow, and Boy Swallows Universe. Listen to the Grateful Dead. I spend time with my children and grandchildren. I’m always reading something. Oh…and also red wine.

What advice would you give early or mid-career IT professionals looking to grow at Stanford?

Invest time in developing relationships. Some IT professionals find this difficult, but both professional growth and professional opportunities often stem from the combination of getting to know other people AND learning from other people.