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August 27, 2007
Coryell named deputy CIO for new consolidated IT division

By donna price

On Aug. 1, Brett Coryell was appointed to lead a new division, University Technology Services, that merges Academic and Administrative Information Technology and Network Communications.

Several key functions of UTS, such as network and communications technologies, data center operations, financial systems, and the PeopleSoft Human Resources application, serve both Emory University and Emory Healthcare.

Coryell’s appointment and the consolidation of the two major University information technology organizations represent a significant advance in streamlining and optimizing IT at Emory under the leadership of Rich Mendola, vice president for IT and CIO.

“Brett has all the characteristics that I envisioned in the ideal candidate for this position,” Mendola said. “He has a wide range of experience in a variety of IT domains and has repeatedly demonstrated his ability to get things done in large, complex organizations.”

In February Mendola launched an intensive, six-month search that was spearheaded by a committee of faculty, administrators and IT staff across the University and chaired by Rick Luce, vice provost and director of University Libraries.

“Brett stood out in the search process as clearly exceptional,” Luce said. “He has an impressive background of accomplishments in the private sector coupled with his academic experience at Purdue. He is going to be a great fit for Emory and complement the team that Rich has put together.”

Coryell’s most recent position was as executive director and deputy CIO for IT at Purdue University. Prior to Purdue, he held senior management positions at Sprint, where he helped direct its consulting organization, participated in the introduction of new mobile devices, and oversaw IT domains ranging from application development to infrastructure.

He said he was first introduced to large-scale computing environments at Sprint when he led a team that developed a process for data center migrations that became a service offering. One of the first customers for the service was Barnes & Noble.com, whose data center was successfully migrated to Sprint’s New York City data center facility.

“Supporting the amazing scope of activity that is going on at Emory is very rewarding for someone in my field,” Coryell said. “It’s an exciting challenge to build reliable services that help our academic and health care communities extend Emory’s reputation as a top university.”

A native of Indiana, Coryell holds a B.S. in physics from Purdue and an M.S. in computer science from the University of Virginia. His wife, Emily, is an intensive care unit nurse. They have two daughters, Hannah and Elise.

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