Tom Butler

Dr. Tom Butler is a Professor in Business Information Systems at University College Cork and a former IRCHSS Government of Ireland Research Fellow. Tom is the Principal Investigator of Ireland’s Governance Risk and Compliance Technology Centre (). In the latter role, he leads a multidisciplinary team of ontology, information systems and legal researchers conducting research on the development and implementation of semantic technologies for Governance Risk and Compliance in the finance industry. This R&D initiative, which is funded by Enterprise Ireland and IDA, has as its primary objectives the development of regulatory and GRC ontologies and process models. Significantly, this project builds upon his previous success in leading teams in the design, development, and implementation of knowledge management systems for the UNFPA and the Irish Government, and in research on the design and implementation of GRC systems for the manufacturing sector. At a higher level, his research is informed by institutional theory and the philosophy of technology, in that it seeks to explain how social, institutional and organisational mechanisms (regulatory, normative and cognitive-cultural) bring about change in institutions and organisations.Tom has 139 publications since joining academia in 1998, including 123 academic publications and 16 reports and working papers. He is currently ranked 33rd out of the top 100 Association for Information Systems (AIS) Senior Scholars and researchers publishing in the ‘basket of 8’ top-tier IS journals. When taking the ‘basket of 4’ European IS journals, he is ranked 3nd in the Top 100 over the same period. Furthermore, he is the only researcher from an Irish business school to be in the top 100 in this ranking. Tom has over 17 years experience teaching, administrating, and designing a variety of courses and programmes at all levels up to PhD. His teaching is underpinned by a long career as an IT professional. He made a significant, early contribution to social inclusion in adult education in his early role as Academic Director and Course Co-ordinator of the Diploma in Applied Business Computing. The academic and other leadership skills he displayed in instituting that programme have evolved and grown over time.