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Developing IT leadership: Arizona SIM chapter

With chapters in countries across the globe, the Society for Information Management is the premier organization worldwide for senior IT executives. SIM is also a key partner with the Department on Information Management in developing professional talent. In-coming President Fawn Medesha, executive leader for information technology for the Arizona Department of Revenue, talks about plans for the year ahead to build the chapter’s leadership role in the profession.

2012-07-10

Forging close ties with the W. P. Carey School's Department of Information Systems and its students is one of the chief goals that the incoming president of the Arizona Chapter of the Society for Information Management, Fawn Medesha, has set for her organization. An accounting major in college, Medesha went to work after graduation for a Phoenix area real estate development firm as a financial analyst, accountant, and project manager. As she assumed more roles for the growing company, she found her professional orientation shifting. "I learned that accounting that can be a very repetitive job, and after awhile, it wasn't interesting to me, Medesha said.”But I also learned that IT was something that was ever changing." She was able to make the shift from accounting to IT without leaving her employer at the time. "When I started at the company it was really small, only about seven people," Medesha said. "I created their accounting department, and then I created their network and their entire IT infrastructure. It got to the point where I couldn't be the CFO and CIO at the same time, so I went over to IT." In her spare time, Medesha studied to become a Project Management Institute certified project management professional, which she achieved in 2007. "I like to learn new things," she said. "I think project management is a core skill for a CIO. Completing your projects on time and on budget is nine-tenths of the job of a CIO. Opportunity follows a very personal layoff Medesha had been with her company for two decades when the 2008 financial crisis battered the real estate industry. "Obviously, the market took a very bad hit on both the real estate and financial side. The company was struggling and didn't need a CIO anymore. So I laid myself off and began looking for a job," she said. When a friend who was working for the state Department of Revenue asked Medesha to come assist her implement change to the organization, she accepted. While she finds the government work gratifying, Medesha hopes to return to the private sector eventually. "I'm too entrepreneurial by my nature to hang around a long time in this field," she said. "But I am more than willing to help out as long as I'm adding value to the organization." Medesha became involved in SIM about three years ago, when she was still in the private sector. With chapters in countries across the globe, SIM is the premier organization worldwide for senior IT executives. SIM offers members in-depth knowledge and the latest research findings through its conferences, meetings, and publications. The Arizona chapter, which has about 50 members, holds its meetings once a month at the University Club on ASU's Tempe campus. "I learned about SIM through a friend of mine who invited me to a meeting," she recalled. "I ended up joining because I was very impressed with the quality of the programs they had. I volunteered to serve on the board and help with programming, then ended up being secretary and ultimately the president." As the new president Medesha is working with the current board of directors on an aggressive strategic plan with the goal of establishing SIM as the premier IT leadership organization in Arizona. “We held our first successful thought leadership event in April, which was a CIO Breakfast Roundtable where we discussed the five dysfunctions of an IT management team.” Medesha is actively recruiting new members for the chapter and hopes to double the membership. "We are doing a huge membership drive for SIM this year," she said. "We hope to recruit new members at a special event we are having at Fender Musical Instruments in October." The world famous guitar maker is headquartered in Scottsdale. Among of Medesha's membership goals for SIM is an increase in the number of women — in the membership and in leadership positions. Medesha is the first woman to serve as president of the SIM chapter, which until about four years ago had not had a woman on its governing board. "It is a challenge in IT, I will admit," she said. "There are not a lot of IT women leaders in the Valley." The organization also has initiatives underway to increase brand awareness. It hopes to expand membership value by getting SIM members involved through participation on committees. SIM is also targeting more local organizations for sponsorship. As a non-profit organization, all of SIM’s revenues are used to bring value to members, and excess funds are directed back to the community via scholarships. For example, the chapter currently presents a scholarship annually to a W. P. Carey information systems student. A growing partnership The SIM chapter and the Department of Information Systems already work together in several areas. Some of the IT executives who belong to the chapter are frequent visitors to campus, where they make presentations to classes or to groups. Similarly, faculty members from the department sometimes make presentations about their research at chapter functions. "From our standpoint, the importance of a great SIM chapter in Arizona is that we can connect with those at the leading edge of what's going on in the field," Goul said. "It's a huge benefit to us to be cognizant of what they're up to and to be supportive in any way we can and to get our students in front of them." Although only senior executives, typically at the CIO level, can be individual members of SIM, the Arizona chapter reserves a group membership for the W. P. Carey School's student DISC club (Department of Information Systems Club). The club sends one member to the monthly SIM chapter dinner or breakfast meeting, and a different student is chosen to attend each month. The student attendees observe the business portion of the meetings, listen to presentations by experts, and socialize with the IT executives during breaks and networking sessions. Michael Goul, chairman of the Department of Information Systems and a SIM member himself, said he is very pleased that the chapter holds its monthly meetings on campus. “We think that helps them connect with what we're trying to do," Goul said. "We've tried to help them get speakers. We're just happy to have them come to the halls of academia to do their business." "It has been a wonderful thing for the students," Goul said. "It has been career changing for some of those kids. It builds their confidence. It enables them to see things they've been talking about in the classroom being discussed at the business level. It drives home everything that they need to know." Medesha said the student presence at the SIM meetings benefits everyone, and the chapter is working with the department to enlist a group of students to help to redesign the SIM website. "The students are absolutely fabulous," she said. "I think it's good exposure for both sides. It's great for us to see these bright up and coming IT guys — and girls." Said Medesha, "This is a partnership that has great value for us." — Medesha encourages Arizona IT leaders who are interested in joining SIM to visit www.azsim.org or search for Arizona SIM on LinkedIn.

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