Brice Bible named UB vice president and chief information officer

BUFFALO, N.Y. – Brice Bible, chief information officer at Ohio University, has been named vice president and chief information officer at the University at Buffalo, effective November 18. The announcement was made today by UB President Satish K. Tripathi.

Bible’s appointment follows a national search. His extensive experience and credentials placed him at the top of an exceptional group of candidates, Tripathi said.

“Brice Bible has distinguished himself as an experienced and forward-thinking executive in the area of information technology,” said Tripathi. “I am confident that he will lead our entire range of IT systems in the continuing direction of a sustainable, secure and service-focused organization that advances UB’s strategic vision. I look forward to working with him to optimize our enterprise-wide IT practices and further establish UB as an innovative leader in 21st century higher education computing.”

The vice president and CIO position will play a critical role in advancing UB’s research and education mission and its global prominence as a progressive university that delivers a well-aligned, innovative and robust technology environment. At UB, he takes over the CIO responsibilities from Tom Furlani, director of UB’s Center for Computational Research, who has served in an interim capacity for the past three years.

“The strength of this candidate pool was very impressive,” said Liesl Folks, dean of the UB School of Engineering and Applied Sciences and chair of the search committee. “We were fortunate to be able to consider such a wide range of talented and experienced information technology professionals. Members of the search committee were especially impressed with Brice Bible’s highly collaborative approach as the CIO at Ohio University, and with the leadership he has demonstrated at campus, system and national levels.”

Bible comes to UB with more than 20 years of experience in higher education information-technology services and has managed $35 million annual budgets with divisions as large as 300 people. His significant experience in IT also includes an appointment as assistant vice president for information technology for the University of Tennessee System and Knoxville Campus. In addition, Bible served at the University of Tennessee Space Institute as director of technology transfer, industrial relations and continuing education and director of research and information technology at the institute’s Center for Space Transportation and Applied Research.

"I'm very excited to join the team at the University at Buffalo,” said Bible.  “The UB 2020 plan and President Tripathi's leadership make this one of the best CIO opportunities in the U.S.

“I am looking forward to meeting the faculty, students and IT team to get started building upon the great technology foundation already in place."

At Ohio University, Bible was responsible for the formation of a service-focused organizational model, establishment of a multi-faceted governance approach, creation and implementation of a comprehensive IT improvement and modernization program, and collaborative creation of an enterprise-wide IT alignment program that included central and distributed IT services.

He led the readiness analysis, acquisition and implementation of a new Student Information System (SIS) and a major enterprise-wide (main and five regional campuses) 10-gigabyte network upgrade.

Bible served three terms as chair of the Ohio Statewide CIO Council and until recently co-led, with the University System of Ohio, several statewide IT collaboration and consolidation initiatives.

He was part of a research team that was awarded 10 patents and has served on the University System of Ohio CIO Advisory Council, the Blackboard Mobility Advisory Council, Educause AGEISS, the OARnet Board of Directors and the Dell Platinum Advisory Council.

Bible earned a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the Tennessee Technological University and a master’s degree in business administration with an emphasis in business data communication from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.