Executive Committee Candidate
Biography
J.P. Auffret is co-founder and current president of the International Academy of CIO, an NGO headquartered in Tokyo, Japan with the objectives of fostering the exchange and adoption of best practices on CIO and IT executive leadership; and government IT institutions and organizations. He is also director, Center for Assurance Research and Engineering (CARE) in the Volgenau School of Engineering and director, Research Partnerships in the School of Business at George Mason University and a visiting lecturer in the Duke University Center for International Development.
Auffret’s work and research span a range of applied technology fields including on CIO and ICT leadership and governance and cybersecurity and including with APEC, NSF, IBM and World Bank. He has served on several Commonwealth of Virginia commissions including the Commonwealth of Virginia Health Information Technology Advisory Commission. He has 30 years of technology industry and academic experience including executive positions with MCI and its joint venture with British Telecom, Concert and academic positions with George Mason, Duke and American University. Auffret earned a B.S. degree from Duke University where he was an A.B. Duke Scholar, an M.B.A. from the University of Virginia and a Ph.D. in Physics from American University.
Rationale
As cofounder in 2005 and now current president of the International Academy of CIO (IAC), I would be able to bring IAC experience and expertise to the IFEES Executive Committee and contribute to furthering the major IFEES strategic plan areas including on quality assurance and capacity building of engineering education; and extending IFEES partnerships, reach and membership.
As background, the International Academy of CIO was founded in 2005 and headquartered in Tokyo and has the objectives of fostering the exchange and adoption of best practices on CIO and IT executive leadership. The IAC promotes and facilitates CIO and IT Executive leadership education and education standards; and government CIO and IT governance policies and institution building. The IAC has active participation from over 50 countries throughout the world and with NGOs and multilateral organizations including APEC, OECD and ITU. The IAC publishes the annual Waseda University – IAC Digital Government Rankings now in its 14th year and partners with IOS Press on a Global E-Governance book series.
Related to the IFEES quality assurance and capacity building strategic plan thrust areas, the IAC focus on CIO and IT executive leadership and education aligns well with the evolution and development of engineering curricula including the development and offering of engineering leadership degree and certificate programs. In addition, the 2018 report “The global state of the art in engineering education” by Dr. Ruth Graham, MIT School of Engineering notes that future of engineering education will be multidisciplinary, consider public policy and have a view to “socially relevant outward facing engineering”. The IAC encompasses these with participation of academia, government and private sector and research initiatives on current world challenges including smart cities and ageing society, and I would also be able to bring these experiences to the IFEES Executive Committee.