Nishanth Rodrigues
OXFORD, Miss. – Nishanth Rodrigues, an award-winning leader in information technology, has been named the University of Mississippi’s new chief information officer.
With more than 24 years of IT experience in academia, manufacturing and professional health care, Rodrigues assumed duties at the university Sept. 5. As CIO, his responsibilities are to provide leadership, management and strategic direction to the Office of Information Technology and provide strategic leadership to the university and other state agencies on all matters related to information technology.
He will work with internal and external stakeholders to provide technology tools, infrastructure and services to support and enhance student services, traditional and online education, research, student recruitment and enrollment, business and administrative processes, and outreach and community service.
“We are truly pleased that Nishanth Rodrigues has joined our leadership team in academic affairs,” said Noel Wilkin, the university’s interim provost. “Information technology is critical to everything that we do. His breadth of experience will be a valuable asset as we continue to innovate and enhance our campus infrastructure and technological capabilities.”
Rodrigues said he is “ecstatic and honored” to become a part of the Ole Miss community.
“The mission of the University of Mississippi aligns very well with my objectives, and the Creed of UM articulates the spirit of the institution, which goes along with my belief system,” Rodrigues said. “Today, technology plays a central role in everything we do, and my challenge is to leverage the best technologies and information systems to enhance the student experience and ensure the continued success of the university, a flagship institution and a powerhouse in the state of Mississippi.
“It’s a true privilege and honor to join the University of Mississippi, an institution with a rich history of academic and research excellence. I’m proud to be a part of such a talented and dedicated team of administrators and educators and look forward to helping the University of Mississippi to grow and succeed.”
Acknowledging that he is still on the “learn and understand” trajectory, Rodrigues shared his short- and long-term goals in the position.
“My short-term goals are to help the Information Technology department continue to create efficiencies in daily operations and refine our processes to benefit our stakeholders and the larger organizational community,” he said. “My long-term goals include, among others, developing standards and policies for expectations and accountability, maintaining a secure IT infrastructure and working with key stakeholders on a go-forward strategy for the institution’s ERP system.”
Formerly assistant vice president and chief technology officer at Michigan State University, Rodrigues led a team responsible for all aspects related to infrastructure: Data Center, Electronic Medical Record, Service Management and Operations.
Before that, Rodrigues was director of IT technology/interoperability at Bronson Healthcare in Kalmazoo, Michigan. For his service, he was awarded the Bronson President’s Leadership Award and earned the highest employee opinion survey results in 2013.
“The President’s Leadership Award is an honor bestowed on only one individual in the company per year in recognition of their contributions to the hospital system,” Rodrigues said. “To me, this was a hallmark following years of hard work and effort to gets teams and departments to work together to seamlessly roll out an ERP for Bronson Healthcare.
“To me, strong leadership is about building consensus and bringing people together to benefit a common objective, and the award qualified the achievement as a valued outcome acknowledged by the top leaders in the organization.”
Other positions Rodrigues has held include global systems engineering manager at Perrigo Inc. in Allegan, Michigan, and director of operations and infrastructure/site service delivery director and clinical systems team manager at Borgess Health in Kalamazoo, Michigan.
Rodrigues earned his Master of Business Administration degree from Michigan State University and his bachelor’s degree in network engineering from Davenport University. His professional memberships include the Intel Corp. Mobility Advisory Board, Michigan Healthcare Cybersecurity Council, Big Ten Academic Alliance and several committees at MSU.
Rodrigues and his wife, Mary, have one daughter, Celestina.