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Pepperdine Names Dr. Timothy M. Chester as Chief Information Officer (CIO) 

After a nationwide search process, Dr. Timothy M. Chester has been named by President Andrew K. Benton as the University's chief information officer. Dr. Chester will report to Dr. Nancy Magnusson, vice president for planning, information, and technology. He will relocate with his wife, Gail, to the Malibu area by February 1, 2007 from Qatar where he has been serving as CIO at Texas A&M University at Qatar (TAMUQ). He will begin working with IT staff, key decision-makers, and project leads prior to that time. In addition to providing leadership for existing IT projects and operations, he will work with university leadership and stakeholders to use IT strategically in support of university goals.

Dr. Chester’s role in Qatar was to establish a branch campus of Texas A&M. He was successful in building the Information Technology Services department, working with faculty, staff, students, campus sponsors, other educational institutions, and local industry partners to create the necessary technology security, high-speed computing network and infrastructure, classrooms and computing facilities, applications, and data center required to support TAMUQ’s teaching, research, and service missions. Prior to the time the Qatar campus opened in 2003, Dr. Chester served as the Senior Information Technology Manager at the main Texas A&M University campus in College Station, Texas. He led the design and implementation of the web-based course registration system for 45,000+ students and was instrumental in implementing network security, server infrastructure, and the applications required to support online payments for tuition.    

Dr. Chester holds a PhD and MS in Sociology from Texas A&M and a BA in Political Science from the University of Texas. Dr. Chester has previously served as a faculty member in Computer Science in Qatar and has served as a lecturer in Information and Operations Management at Texas A&M in College Station, Texas. He continues to serve as a member of the Educause Quarterly Editorial Board and has a number of publications in scholarly journals. His most recent article is titled, "A Roadmap for IT Leadership and the Next Ten Years," published in the May 2006 issue of the Educause Quarterly.