Thomas W. West Named President/Executive Director of the Corporation for Education Network Initiatives in California (CENIC)

Oakland, California, February 11, 1999: Thomas W. West has been named president and executive director of the Corporation for Education Network Initiatives in California (CENIC) effective March 1, 1999. Dr. West has been associated with CENIC since its inception in 1997 as a representative of one of its founding institutional members.

CENIC is a not-for-profit organization that fosters the advanced research and education networking interests of institutions of higher education in California. CENIC recently launched CalREN-2, a high-performance data communications network. CalREN-2 is California's segment of the national Internet2 initiative that links over 100 of the nations leading universities.

"The CENIC Board of Directors is pleased that Dr. West has accepted this position," said M. Stuart Lynn, chairman of the board of directors of CENIC and University of California associate vice-president. "Dr. West has the connections and skills needed to ensure CENIC's efforts are focused on the task at hand as we move forward."

Prior to joining CENIC, Dr. West served as Assistant Vice Chancellor for Information Resources and Technology of the California State University system. As an Assistant Vice Chancellor and the Chief Information Technology Officer, he reported to the Executive Vice Chancellor and served as the primary advisor to the Chancellor and 23 campus presidents on system-wide information resources and technology matters.

Dr. West is a member and/or contributor to professional organization and associations, including CAUSE, EDUCOM, EDUCAUSE, the Society for Management Information Systems and the California Information Technology Commission. He is a past member of the Executive Committee and Board of Trustees of EDUCOM as well as a past member of the Executive Committee and Board of Directors of CAUSE. He acted as a founding Steering Committee member of the Coalition for Networked Information.

Dr. West is a current member of the National Learning Infrastructure Initiative steering committee. He was named the first recipient of the ELITE Award in 1990, given by CAUSE for excellence in leadership in information technology.

Dr. West earned his Ed D in higher education administration from Indiana University. He has been a resident of Orange County since 1981.

About CENIC

CENIC is a not-for-profit corporation formed by the California Institute of Technology, the California State University, Stanford University, the University of California, and the University of Southern California to advance the use of communications technology in teaching, learning, and research at California's institutions of higher education. CENIC operates the high performance network for qualified institutions for research and learning purposes. CENIC's network is partially funded by the National Science Foundation.