Executive Sponsors

Executive Sponsors are select senior leaders who own an institutional transformation initiative and assume responsibility for daily decision-making, active championship, and cascading of decisions and information to all levels of the university. For Operational Excellence @ Illinois, Executive Sponsors oversee:

Clearly articulating the case for change and ensuring that it reflects institutional priorities and missions;
Defining precise goals and objectives that directly address institutional priorities;
Prioritizing and allocating resources to the initiative; and
Developing and enforcing reinforcement structures that promote future-state orientation and change implementation.

Executive Sponsors

Mike DeLorenzo, Vice Chancellor for Administration and Operations                                                                              
Vicky Gress, Associate Chancellor and Vice Provost for Budget and Resource Planning
Paul Redman, Executive Associate Provost for Budget and Resource Planning

Project Management & Advisory Support

The Strategic Project Management Office in the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Administration and Operations, oversees university-wide initiatives that require project management, including Operational Excellence @ Illinois. 

Rebecca McNaught, Executive Director for Project Management & Business Service Quality and head of the SPMO 
Advisory Committees: In recognition of the wide breath of Operational Excellence, the Strategic Program Management Office (SPMO) has launched advisory committees for each function involved in Operational Excellence (i.e., HR, IT, Budget, Space, Procurement, Marcom, and Data). These committees ensure an official avenue for functional representatives to advise on strategic initiatives supported by the SPMO, including Operational Excellence projects.

Current Project and Functional Design Teams

Teams specific to the seven functional areas are working to determine the precise, tactical details and steps needed to achieve the proposed high-level operating model. Their solutions will also address the Functional Opportunities surfaced by Work Teams from the initiative’s prior phases.

The Change Leadership Team consists of cross-functional representatives and communications and organizational change specialists who guide change leadership efforts related to Operational Excellence. The team:

Advises on strategies and communications to keep the campus community engaged and informed
Informs potential trainings on change leadership, service excellence, and other topics
Collaborates with various leaders and groups across campus to promote initiative collaboration

CLT Members

HR Representatives
• Deb Stone, Assistant Chancellor, HR Center of Expertise
• Joe Bohn, Executive Director for HR, College of Agricultural, Consumer, and Environmental Sciences
• Emilia Schroer, Program Coordinator
• Jake MacGregor, Organizational Development and Training Coordinator
Former member: Tiy Goddard, Assistant Director, Employee Development and Learning

IT Representatives
• James Quisenberry, Director of Student Affairs Technology
Tracy Smith, Deputy CIO, Innovation and Technology Strategy
Marcom Representatives
• Allison Vance, Director of Strategy and Messaging, Public Affairs
• Jennifer Larson, Assistant Dean of Marketing and Communications, College of Agricultural, Consumer, and Environmental Sciences
Katie Watson, Associate Director of Institutional Communications, Public Affairs
Strategic Project Management Office (SPMO) Representatives
• Rebecca McNaught, Executive Director for Project Management & Business Service Quality
Gabe Gibson, Senior Director of Collaborative Initiative Planning

The Service Excellence Team consists of cross-functional representatives who help ensure that all Op. Excellence initiatives maintain a culture of service and continue to work towards long-term process improvement. Team composition will vary based on availability and functional areas with active initiatives. The team:

Advises on service governance best practices and promotes campus engagement with them
Supports process redesign efforts in collaboration with functional areas
Establishes infrastructure to produce success metrics and data to track service quality

SET Members

Team Lead: Rebecca McNaught, Executive Director for Project Management and Business Service Quality
Service & Process Redesign
• Michael Chan, IT Architect
• Steven Kemp, Program Manager, Organization Development
• Andy Weaver, Business Analyst
• Margo Kiener, HR Coordinator
• Jeff Fox, CIO
• Jeff Sylvester, Market Research Director
Michael Curtin, Senior Service Management Methods Analyst
Track Success
• Mehdi Lahjouji, Data Analyst
• Nick Vance, Assistant Director Data Innovation
• Ashley Hetrick, Data Engineer
• Irene Sakellarakis, Senior IT Specialist
Hannah Christensen, Manager, Data & Technology Innovation
Service Governance
Jessica Mette, Assistant Provost Faculty App Policy Administrator
SET Representatives – Past Contributors
• Libby Kacich, Assistant Dean for Marketing and Communications
• Stephanie Haas, Director of Human Resources, Education Administration
Angela Reggans, Assistant Director of Labor & Employee Relations, Illinois Human Resources

Task Force (Imagine, Decide, and Bridge Phases)

Prior Task Force

Andreas Cangellaris, Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs and Provost
Mike DeLorenzo, Vice Chancellor for Administration and Operations
Scott Genung, Interim Chief Information Officer
Gabe Gibson, Senior Director of Collaborative Initiatives Planning
Vicky Gress, Acting Associate Chancellor and Vice Provost for Budget and Resource Planning
Deb Stone, Interim Senior Associate Chancellor for Human Resources (formerly)
Kraig Wagenecht, External Research Partnerships Senior Director
Paul Ellinger (on the Task Force before moving to a position at the University of Illinois System)

Executive Sponsors (Imagine, Decide, and Bridge Phases)

Prior Executive Sponsors

Vicky Gress, Acting Associate Chancellor and Vice Provost for Budget and Resource Planning
Kraig Wagenecht, External Research Partnerships Senior Director

Information Technology (IT) (Imagine, Decide, and Detailed Design Phases)

IT Operational Excellence was previously supported by the Information Technology Functional Design Team. The creation of the draft service catalog marked the completion of the team’s original charge and as a result the group retired and was replaced by Project Teams focusing on IT Operational Excellence priorities for 2023. The IT FDT was composed of IT leaders from various units across campus.

Members

Functional Sponsor: Mairéad Martin, Chief Information Officer
Functional Co-Leads
• Chris Tidrick, Senior Director of IT
Scott Genung, Deputy CIO of IT Operations
Functional Design Team Members
• Kelly Block, Associate VP of Administration, IT Service
• Tim Boerner, Interim AD of Integrated Cyberinfrastructure
• Troy Gagne, Manager, IT Project Management​
• Jim Hurst, Director of Engineering IT Shared Services
• Jeremy Jones, Director of Infrastructure and Support
• James Quisenberry, Director of Student Affairs Technology
• Tracy Smith, Deputy CIO for Innovation & Technology Strategy
Tracy Tolliver, Director of Library IT

Work Teams (Imagine and Decide Phases)

Teams comprised of a Team Lead and 10-15 cross-campus representatives specific to each of the five functional areas (see below) that advised on means to reach Operational Excellence @ Illinois goals. Team members participated in a series of live sessions to offer insights, raise concerns, and develop Functional Opportunities to support the ideal future state of administrative services at Illinois and achieve phase objectives.