Bhavani Koneru appointed as university's Chief Information Officer

Following a national search that began in late 2020, the university has appointed Bhavani Koneru as its next Chief Information Officer. She will join the campus community on Monday, October 18.

Currently serving as Associate Vice President for ITS and Chief Information Officer at Ferris State University, Koneru will direct the organization and staff in the office of University Technology Services and have responsibility for the planning and delivery of university-wide information technology deployment.

A 13-member search committee chaired by Associate Vice President for Finance and Administration Tom LeMarbe reviewed the qualifications and experience of more than 30 candidates and narrowed the search to a field of four highly qualified finalists. Chief of Staff Joshua Merchant chose to offer the position to Koneru.

"The search committee and I were impressed with Bhavani's broad experience in higher education, her bold ideas to advance information technology at an institution of Oakland's size, as well as her firm understanding of the need to balance centralized and decentralized services," said Chief of Staff Joshua Merchant.

"While extending Bhavani a warm welcome to the OU community, I also want to thank the search committee, our search consultants and, particularly, Interim CIO Lori Tirpak for the outstanding work she has done to maintain the high quality of UTS work and keep our strategic vision for educational technology moving forward."

At Ferris state, Koneru oversees the university’s information technology strategies and computer systems to ensure that they support the strategic objectives; student success, teaching excellence and operational effectiveness.

She also leads the University’s more than 100-member IT organization, which is responsible for providing a robust and secure computing environment, reliable infrastructure and viable enterprise applications.

"The strategic vision of Reimagining OU shared by President Pescovitz and the university leadership's perspective about technology being a building block to realize this vision strongly attracted me to Oakland University," Koneru said.

"I intend to simplify, sustain, innovate and drive digital transformation with emphasis on addressing the top priorities of IT in Higher Education – information security, privacy, student centric learning and sustainable funding."