CIO Talk Radio Blog

Eric Dirst is Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer for DeVry Inc. DeVry Inc. is a publicly-held, global provider of educational services.

Dirst, who joined DeVry in 2008 as Vice President and CIO, brings 23 years of experience within the information technology field. Eric joined DeVry from SIRVA Inc., a global provider of relocation and moving services for consumers, corporations and governments. SIRVA's brands include Allied International, Allied Van Lines, North American Van Lines, and SIRVA Relocation. While at SIRVA, Eric served most recently as Vice President and Chief Information Officer where he was responsible for streamlining business processes, consolidating operations and maximizing ROI. Under Eric's leadership, SIRVA was named to CIO Magazine's Top 100 Innovative Organizations in 2006 for its effective use of IT to create business value.

Prior to SIRVA, Eric held senior positions with firms including IQ4hire Inc., KPMG Peat Marwick, and Covansys, a NASDAQ company which was acquired by Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC) in 2007. Eric is a member of the CIO Leadership Network and the Midwest Technology Executives Club.

Nicholas R. Colisto is a senior information technology executive with experience providing innovative, business driven IT solutions. He serves as the Vice President and Chief Information Officer at Hovnanian Enterprises, Inc., a large residential homebuilder.

Prior to joining Hovnanian, he held key information technology leadership positions at large organizations including Pepsi-Cola, Priceline.com, Hyperion Solutions, Boehringer-Ingelheim, and Bayer Corporation (formerly Sterling Winthrop).

Colisto is very active in the information technology, education, and healthcare communities. He has served on the Governing Body for the CIO Leadership Network and has been a speaker at the executive summits. He is a member of the Society for Information Management (SIM) and has served on its programs committee. Colisto taught a Masters program in Information Technology at Manhattanville College in New York for several years and also served on its Advisory Board. He lectured at Columbia University’s CIO Leadership Workshop. He currently serves on the Industrial Advisory Board at Rutgers University, on the Educational Advisory Board at Brookdale College in New Jersey, and on the Foundation Board of Trustees for Bayshore Community Hospital.

He is the recipient of many industry awards, including the 2011 Computerworld Premier 100 IT Leaders Award, 2010 CIO 100 by IDG’s CIO Magazine, 2009 InfoWorld 100, 2009 and 2010 InformationWeek 500, and the 2011 InfoWorld Green 15 Award.

Stuart Kippelman is Vice President and Chief Information Officer of Covanta Energy Corporation. In this role, Stuart establishes and executes global technology strategies, leveraging information technology to achieve business objectives creating a competitive advantage. Prior to joining Covanta, Stuart served at Johnson & Johnson as Vice President for global infrastructure technology engineering and development, and also Corporate Director of IT marketplace innovation where he created multiple revenue generating business opportunities, and led strategies to leverage the power of technology into emerging global markets. During Stuart’s tenure at J&J, he lead many aspects of enterprise infrastructure as well as the creation of multiple new departments and capabilities including informatics, business intelligence, scientific computing, advanced networking research, and radio frequency identification. Stuart has been a member of numerous industry groups including the Internet2 Governance and Nominations Committee and External Relations Advisory Councils.

CIO Talk Radio blog includes entries created as a collaborative effort between Sanjog Aul, the talk show host and the staff.

Martin J. Gomberg is senior vice president and chief information officer with AETN where he has been for more than 15 years. Martin is very proud to be associated with such immediately recognizable brands as A&E and The History Channel and now Lifetime Television. "AETN is a wonderful and innovative company with tremendous reach and recongnition," he says, "a major player in our industry, a growth company and yet a small enough company to allow me to contribute to the decisions that advance or position of leadership." Martin is a founding member of the CIO Executive Council, and active participant in industry shaping activities through its Media and Entertainment sub committee and a frequest speaker on Business continuity and emerging digital content protection issues.