Joe Peppard

Professor Joe Peppard is Academic Director of Smurfit Executive Development. Previously, he was Principal Research Scientist at MIT Sloan School of Management’s Center for Information Systems Research (CISR), a Full Professor at ESMT Berlin, Germany (2013–2017) and held the Chair in Information Systems at Cranfield School of Management, United Kingdom, where he was Director of the Information Systems Research Centre and led the IT Directors Forum (2005–2013). He has also held or holds academic appointments at Loughborough University (United Kingdom), Durham University Business School (UK), Trinity College, Dublin (Ireland), Groningen University (the Netherlands), IEDC Bled School of Management (Slovenia), Politecnico di Milano (Italy), University of Sydney (Australia), and University of South Australia. In 2011 and 2017 he was Dean’s Distinguished Scholar at the University of Southern Queensland (Australia).

A leading authority on data, systems and technology and their business and organizational implications, he researches, teaches and consults in the domains of IT leadership, digital strategy and innovation, the execution of digital transformation programs, IT value, and architecting an organization for digital. His research studies contemporary issues and challenges that executives face in an environment of accelerating technological change. While academically rigorous, with his research he strives to steer a pragmatic path. In his writings and teaching, Professor Peppard seeks to help the busy executive and board member to be successful. He recognizes that executives want frameworks and models to help them understand their own predicaments, insights to figure out options and consequences, and clear actionable advice and guidance. In 2021, The Wall Street Journal cited his research on digital transformation as one of “10 tech events that will shape the future.”

Findings from his studies have been published in leading journals including European Journal of Information Systems, California Management Review, MIS Quarterly Executive, Journal of Strategic Information Systems, International Journal of Production and Operations Management, European Management Journal, Journal of Information Technology, Journal of Service Research, Long Range Planning, MIT Sloan Management Review, Harvard Business Review, European Journal of Marketing, International Journal of Information Management and Information Systems Journal. In 2009 The Operational Research Society awarded him the prestigious Stafford Beer Medal for his research while he received Best Paper Awards at the 2012 American Marketing Association’s International Service Research Conference and the 2014 International Data and Information Management Conference. He is currently ranked in the top 100 information systems (IS) scholars of all time.

His most recent book (with Tony Gerth) Taking the Reins as CIO: A Blueprint for Leadership Transitions was published in 2020 by Palgrave Macmillan, while the 4th Edition of The Strategic Management of Information Systems: Building a Digital Strategy (Wiley) appeared in 2016. His book The Essence of Business Process Re-engineering (Prentice-Hall), originally published in the mid-1990s, has been translated into Chinese, Spanish and Polish. He is currently working on two books, From Function to Fabric: The Metamorphosis of the IT Department (with R.M. Bastien) and Digital Leadership for Boards (with J. Thorp and S. de Haes). He is Associate Editor of Communications of the ACM, an Editorial Board Member of Journal of Strategic Information Systems and MIS Quarterly Executive, and was previously European Editor of the Journal of Information Technology and an Editorial Board Member of European Management Journal.

In his consulting, Dr. Peppard works closely with senior executives and Board members of large complex organizations in both public and private sectors. He also advises a number of technology companies, helping them with their strategy, market positioning and growth. A former Irish international athlete, he is a Director of IT Alliance Group, an outsourcing and managed service provider; a Director of Vitro Software, a provider of electronic medical records software; board advisor to Effixis, a Swiss start-up supporting organizations in their data and AI innovation projects through state-of-the-art solutions; sits on the Irish Government’s eHealth Committee; and previously served as Chairman of Fineos Corporation (ASX:FCL), a leading provider of core systems for life, accident and health insurers, and one of Europe’s few Fintech unicorns.

Degrees

• BSc - Trinity College Dublin
• MSc - Trinity College Dublin
• PhD - Cranfield School of Management Bedford UK