Marist VP and CIO will chair board of NYSERNet.Org.

Poughkeepsie (July 3, 2014) – NYSERNet, a private not-for-profit corporation created to foster science and education in New York State, announced at its recent Board meeting that Bill Thirsk, Marist's Vice President and CIO, has been selected as the new Board Chair of the subsidiary operating company, NYSERNet.Org.  He succeeds Dr. Timothy Lance who has held that role, as well as serving as President of NYSERNet.Org, since 1998.

"Bill’s appointment, responding to new state legislation requiring that the roles of president and chair be separated, allows us to recognize in Bill the extraordinary leadership of another member of the NYSERNet Board," Lance said. "We are a community of trust who have done things together that we could not have done alone.”

"At NYSERNet, network peering has matured from advanced digital connectivity of research and education institutions to a vibrant community of trust that is mutually supportive of the missions’ of all member institutions, large and small," said Thirsk. "Big scientific research can happen anywhere, and, in fact, it is happening everywhere in the state. Providing governance for the private, not-for-profit, purpose-built network for research and education has been a great source of satisfaction for me. I look forward to working with the board and I will continue to work to make sure NYSERNet Inc. remains the gold standard for research and education networks in the nation."

About Bill Thirsk

Bill Thirsk joined Marist College in June 2007. As Vice President and CIO, he oversees all areas of information technology and other enterprise support units. His experience in higher education technology management is broad-based covering such areas as technology planning, network management, telecommunications, web services, and instructional technology. With over 30 years of experience in higher education technology management, Thirsk is a nationally recognized expert in enterprise resource planning (ERP) and major technology implementations. Over the span of his career, he has accomplished seven successful ERP implementations and consulted for numerous others. Each implementation included major replacements or rebuilds of campus systems, networks, and infrastructures.

Thirsk has provided leadership for the Marist College Joint Studies projects – including a long-standing one with IBM – which are multidisciplinary applied research projects in advanced high-performance computing, open source software development and support, and converged networking.

Thirsk was named to IDG’s Computerworld Premier 100 IT Leaders for 2013. He is also founding Chair of the Board of Directors of the Ellucian Community Source Initiative (CSI).

Thirsk received a BBA in Business Administration from George Washington University and an MBA from the New York Institute of Technology. He is also a Veteran of the United States Marine Corps.

About NYSERNet

NYSERNet was founded in 1985 by a consortium of visionary public and private New York State institutions to provide high-speed network connectivity to advance research and educational initiatives in the Empire State. The organization’s mission is to advance network technology and related applications to satisfy needs common to the institutions comprising New York State's research and education community, providing a forum for exploration of the opportunities and challenges these innovations present.

 Members of NYSERNet include New York State's leading universities, colleges, museums, healthcare facilities, primary and secondary schools, and research institutions. The NYSERNet Board of Directors is composed of CIO's and other senior personnel drawn from and representing New York's leading research universities and institutions.