FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: December 21, 2007                              

DRI hires Assistant Vice President of Information Technology
Novak previously at Washington University in St. Louis

RENO – Ed Novak was selected from a national search at the Desert Research Institute to become the Assistant Vice President of Information Technology and Chief Information Officer.

“Ed brings with him a diverse background in information technology and strategic planning that will be vital to the future of the institute,” Dr. Stephen Wells, DRI President said. “As DRI’s research portfolio has doubled during the past decade, the technology demands have increased to an even greater degree. In the coming year, we will open one of the top computational and visualization centers in the world on our Reno campus.”

Novak served as the interim Chief Information Officer at DRI for the past year. He has overseen a reorganization of the IT Department, outsourcing of application development, a new IT governance structure, and adoption of a centralized storage and server strategy for the Institute.

Prior to coming to DRI, Novak was the Assistant Dean/Information Systems Director at the John M. Olin School of Business at Washington University in St. Louis. He led efforts in IT strategic planning, application and web development, and e-Learning for the school, and was responsible for a major renovation of the IT infrastructure. Prior to his tenure at Washington University, he was the CIO at Value Line, Inc., and LAI/Ward Howell.

Novak has a bachelor’s degree in Commerce from the University of Illinois and a Masters in Management from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University.

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Note to Reporters and Editors: DRI, the nonprofit research campus of the Nevada System of Higher Education, strives to be the world leader in environmental sciences through the application of knowledge and technologies to improve people’s lives throughout Nevada and the world.