Steve Andriole

Stephen J. Andriole’s career has focused on the development, application and management of information technology and analytical methodology to problems in government and industry: Dr. Andriole has addressed them from academia, government, his own consulting companies, a global insurance and financial services company, a pharmaceutical company, from the perspective of a public venture operating company, a private equity venture capitalist , a corporate director and an Angel investor. The focus of his career has been on technology innovation, the optimization and management of technology, and technology adoption, deployment and governance. He has pioneered the application of AI and machine learning, interactive systems design, technology due diligence and the tracking and application of emerging business technologies.

Government

Dr. Andriole’s government consulting experience began at Decisions & Designs, Inc., a company that designed and developed interactive computer-based resource allocation, forecasting and decision-making systems for the federal government. It was at Decisions & Designs that Dr. Andriole implemented an interactive system for monitoring the interactions among nations, a system that was funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) as part of Dr. Andriole’s Ph.D. dissertation research, and whose output was eventually published in President Ronald Reagan’s daily briefing book.

Dr. Andriole was the Director of the Cybernetics Technology Office of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) where he managed a program of research and development that led to a number of important scientific and technological advances in the broad-based information, decision, and computing sciences. While at DARPA, Dr. Andriole supported the development of spatial data management and multimedia systems, decision support systems, computer-aided simulation and training systems, and intelligent technology-based command & control systems. Dr. Andriole’s research program at DARPA seeded MIT’s Architecture Machine Group, which evolved into the internationally-known Media Lab. The program also contributed to the development of the ARPANET (which became today’s Internet), interactive training simulations, such as SIMNET, and a whole host of artificial intelligence-based advances. Dr. Andriole was a member of the government’s Senior Executive Service (SES) and received several awards for his work at DARPA, including the Defense Meritorious Civilian Service Award.

Industry

Dr. Andriole’s career in the industry has taken several forms. He’s been a Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer (CTO) at a Fortune 100 company, an Interim Chief Information Officer (CIO) at a global pharmaceutical company, a Senior Vice President and CTO at a public operating and ventures capital company, a principal at a private equity venture fund, and an entrepreneur where he’s been a founder, co-founder, and CEO of several technology and technology consulting companies.

Dr. Andriole was the Chief Technology Officer and Senior Vice President of Safeguard Scientifics, Inc. (NYSE: SFE) where he was responsible for identifying technology trends, translating that insight into the Safeguard investment strategy, and leveraging trends analyses with the Safeguard portfolio companies to help them develop business and marketing strategies. Dr. Andriole was also a Principal at TL Ventures, one of the Philadelphia region’s largest private equity venture capital funds. While at Safeguard, Dr. Andriole worked closely with many companies at all stages of their development; he was also the primary Wall Street contact for Safeguard, frequently interacting with the analysts that covered SFE. He also participated directly in raising nearly $1B for Safeguard and its partner companies. At its peak, the value of Safeguard and its partner companies exceeded $100B. Dr. Andriole participated directly in the Initial Public Offerings (IPOs) of eleven companies and directed due diligence projects supporting investments in over fifty companies.

Dr. Andriole was the Chief Technology Officer and Senior Vice President for Technology Strategy at Cigna Corporation (NYSE: CI), a global insurance and financial services company, where he was responsible for the enterprise information architecture, computing standards, the technology research & development program, digital security, as well as the overall alignment of enterprise information technology investments with Cigna’s multiple lines of business. He was also the Interim CIO of Shire Pharmaceuticals where he stabilized the technology environment and launched multiple projects to modernize and transform the technology organization especially as it applied to governance.

As an entrepreneur, Dr. Andriole founded International Information Systems (IIS), Inc., which designed interactive systems for a variety of corporate and government clients. IIS specialized in requirements analysis and prototyping, the design of user-computer interfaces and software systems evaluation. IIS also performed technology investment risk assessments for government and industry. He is also the founder of TechVestCo, a digital consulting consortium that identifies and leverages technology trends to help clients optimize business technology investments, as well as the co-founder of several other technology companies.

Academia

Dr. Andriole is currently the (tenured, full) Thomas G. Labrecque Professor of Business in the Villanova School of Business at Villanova University where he teaches artificial intelligence & machine learning, emerging business technologies, and innovation and entrepreneurialism. He conducts applied research on technology management best practices, applications in AI & machine learning, emerging digital technology, cloud computing, technology due diligence, digital transformation, and technology governance.

Dr. Andriole is formerly a (tenured, full) Professor of Information Systems & Electrical & Computer Engineering at Drexel University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where he conducted applied research in information and software systems engineering, principally through the Center for Multidisciplinary Information Systems Engineering (the MISE Center), which he founded and directed. While at Drexel, Dr. Andriole held joint appointments in the College of Information Studies (CIS) and the College of Engineering (COE). The MISE Center generated over $7 million in external funding from industry, the federal government, and private foundations. While at Drexel, and as part of the MISE Center’s R&D program, Dr. Andriole – with support from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation – designed and implemented the nation’s first totally online masters program in information systems (launched in 1994). The program was featured in the nationally broadcasted PBS Special “net.learning.”

Dr. Andriole was a (tenured, full) Professor (and Chairman) of the Department of Information Systems & Systems Engineering at George Mason University where he held the George Mason Institute Professorship of Information Technology. The department was home to thirty full-time and part-time professors and had an annual external-sponsored research budget of over $15M. Several research centers were founded in the department under his leadership including the Center for Computer Security, the Center for Software Engineering, and the Center for Command, Control, Communications & Intelligence.

Publications

Dr. Andriole’s research on digital transformation was recently published in the Sloan Management Review (2017, 2018 and 2019), IEEE IT Professional (2018 - 2023), the California Management Review (2022), the Communications of the AIS (2022), the International Journal of Technology Management (2022) and the European Business Review (2017). His research around “ready” technologies was published in the Communications of the ACM (2014) and in Ready Technology: Fast-Tracking New Business Technologies (CRC Press, 2014). His research on technology adoption has been published in the Innovator’s Imperative: Rapid Technology Adoption for Digital Transformation (CRC Press, 2017).

His most recent book – Digital Confidential: A No-Nonsense Business-Technology Playbook – was published by Pearson Trade Professional in 2023. Start | Build | Exit will be published in 2024.

Some of his other 35 books include the Sourcebook of Applied Artificial Intelligence (McGraw-Hill, 1992), Artificial Intelligence & National Defense (AFCEA International Press, 1987), Applications in Artificial Intelligence (Petrocelli Books, 1985), Defense Applications of Artificial Intelligence (Lexington Books, 1988; co-author and co-edited), a (co-authored with Len Adelman) book on user interface technology for Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc. entitled Cognitive Systems Engineering (1995) and a book for McGraw-Hill entitled Managing Systems Requirements: Methods, Tools & Cases (1996). Technology Due Diligence: Best Practices for CIOs, Technology Vendors & Venture Investors was published in 2009 by IGI Publishing. Best Practices in Business Technology Management was also published by Auerbach Publishing in 2009. He published The 2nd Digital Revolution: Candid Conversations About Business Technology Convergence in 2005 (IGI Publishing).

Some recent conference presentations include “Global FINTECH Readiness,” presented at the 9th International Conference on Restructuring the Global Economy, July 8-9, 2019 at the University of Oxford, United Kingdom, “Tracking the Technology Arms Race,” presented at “Pharmacogenomics and Augmented Analytics,” presented at the Annual SLAS Conference in Brussels, Belgium, June 26, 2018; “The Innovator’s Imperative: Rapid Technology Adoption for Digital Transformation,” presented at the IEEE COMPSAC Conference, Turin, Italy, July 5, 2017; “The End of IT | The Birth of Digital,” presented at the IEEE COMPSAC/iTIP Conference/Symposia, Turin, Italy, July 7, 2017; “Digital Transformation: Elevating the Value of IT Through Digital Transformation,” Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, March 29, 2017; and “Next Generation Technology Management,” Keynote to the Society for Information Management (SIM), Moorestown, New Jersey, April 14, 2016. He hosted a Webinar on September 26, 2019, for the New Jersey Society for Information Management (NJSIM) on “Business Technology Leadership for Digital Transformation.”

Dr. Andriole has published over 500 articles, monographs, reports, and book chapters. He was a monthly columnist for Datamation Magazine on business technology convergence and is currently a regular contributor to Forbes Magazine where he writes about all things digital. Dr. Andriole’s book – IT’s All About the People: Technology Management That Overcomes Disaffected People, Stupid Processes and Deranged Corporate Cultures (Auerbach Publishing, 2011) – was named the #4 Best 2011 Book in IT-Business by CIO Insight Magazine. He is listed in numerous directories of “Who’s Who,” is the recipient of the US Department of Defense Meritorious Civilian Service Award and is a Charter Member of the US Senior Executive Service (SES). He served on the Industrial Advisory Board of the ABET (the Accreditation Board for Engineering & Technology) and was a member of LaSalle University’s Advisory Board on Computer Information Science. He received the Information Technology Exhibitions & Conferences (ITEC) Lifetime Achievement Award for Excellence in Information Technology and an Honorary Doctorate from LaSalle University also for his accomplishments in information technology. His article in the MIT Sloan Management Journal – “Five Myths About Digital Transformation” – was voted one of the 20 most popular SMR articles in 2017.

Consulting

Some of Dr. Andriole’s consulting clients include General Electric, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Magnavox, Cigna, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the Conference of State Bank Supervisors (CSBS), Merck & Co., Computer Sciences Corporation, Shire Pharmaceuticals, Lincoln Labs, Air Products & Chemicals, Booz-Allen & Hamilton, Zebra Technologies, Computer Sciences Corporation, Coriell Life Sciences, SAIC, Berkshire Hathaway, LiquidHub, Arcadia University, Department of Homeland Security, MIT/Lincoln Labs, the National Academy of Sciences, Prudential, GSK, Astra-Zeneca, the Software Productivity Consortium, Vertex and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). He serves on a number of corporate boards and served on the Board of the Ben Franklin Technology Partnership (BFTP) of Southeastern Pennsylvania for nearly ten years, where he was also a Member of BFTP’s Corporate Development Committee.