University IT (UIT) is foundational to Stanford’s mission, and we are continually refining our organization to meet the needs of our faculty, researchers, students, and healthcare providers.
These leadership transitions are effective December 1, 2024.
Ganesh Karkala Named Chief Technology Officer
In recognition of his ongoing leadership in implementing our major enterprise systems, Ganesh Karkala will serve as Chief Technology Officer and Associate Vice President, Enterprise Technology. UIT’s Network Engineering teams, Service Management Technologies team, and the Enterprise Learning Management Initiative will all now be part of Enterprise Technology.
Ganesh’s new title and additional responsibilities reflect his outstanding leadership of enterprise systems and the underlying complex technology stack. During his time at Oracle, Ganesh was also responsible for large-scale technology implementations including a global ERP instance, managing data center builds in the U.S, and leading global IT networking and security. His extensive experience with the vendor community and understanding of potential implications for Stanford is invaluable for how we approach and implement new technologies.
Sylvie Cosgrove Leaving Stanford
Sylvie Cosgrove will be leaving Stanford. Her leadership responsibilities will transition effective December 1.
Sylvie joined Stanford in June 2019 as executive director for IT Infrastructure. During her time in UIT, she has led significant projects including the upgrade of our Wi-Fi network infrastructure, increasing access to mobile connectivity, and extensively expanding audio visual technologies and service offerings.
She has also distinguished herself as a trusted leader with our Stanford Medicine partners. Sylvie also chairs the board of the Corporation for Education Network Initiatives (CENIC), a non-profit organization whose mission is to advance education and research.
Sam Steinhardt to Lead a Recomposed IT Infrastructure
Sam Steinhardt, Assistant Vice President for Strategic Initiatives, will lead a recomposed IT Infrastructure. This includes enterprise telephony, contact center solutions, audio/visual technologies, technical facilities, cloud hosting, and much more.
In addition to providing critical communications technology services to the university, these teams provide many essential services to Stanford Health Care and Stanford Children’s Health. Sam has deep experience leading contract negotiations with both Stanford hospitals, and he drives several critical strategic initiatives that substantially impact all of the schools. This includes guiding a strategy for faculty systems and being responsible for the Google Workspace Optimization project.
Project Management Team Moves to the Office of the CIO
Nancy Ware, Chief of Staff, partners with Chief Information Officer Steve Gallagher to articulate and advance UIT strategies and priorities. A key aspect of Nancy’s role is to operationalize and coordinate our Stanford-wide IT governance framework. This includes C-ACIS (faculty governance), SGG (systems priorities and investments), and CIO Council (leading Stanford-wide IT programs and initiatives).
The Project Management Office provides professional IT project management services for a diverse range of technical projects, and will now report to Nancy. The team manages UIT's active project portfolio and provides professional IT project management services for Business Affairs initiatives, SGG-funded projects, and healthcare-related priorities.
Research Computing Executive Director Search Underway
Interim executive director Nan McKenna will continue to lead our Research Computing team. Senior Associate Vice Provost for Research Curt Langlotz and Steve Gallagher have engaged stakeholders across Stanford to define key competencies and expectations for an executive director to support the evolving needs of Stanford’s research communities. We have selected a search partner, and the search committee is formed.
