The following email was sent today to the MIT community by Executive Vice President and Treasurer Israel Ruiz.
Dear MIT faculty and staff,
I write to share the news that John Charles has let us know of his decision to retire as MIT's Vice President (VP) for Information Systems and Technology (IS&T) at the end of this calendar year, following five years of dedicated service to the Institute.
John came to MIT with extensive experience serving in both public and private research and education institutions. He has had a distinguished 25-year career as an IT leader, and has been a key member of our senior management team. As VP, John set a vision for the transformation of “IT@MIT”. Under his leadership, IS&T migrated 17 years of legacy SAP data to the SAP HANA cloud platform, and moved the majority of IS&T’s managed servers to the cloud, laying the groundwork for a new operating model for enterprise resource planning and data centers. With John’s guidance, the IS&T team implemented a number of cybersecurity enhancements designed to strengthen protections for the Institute’s core administrative systems, demonstrated the benefits of platform-based API-centric architecture, and modernized several key administrative and student systems. Working with the Information Technology Governance Committee, he has been a key contributor to the development of information technology policy at MIT.
I am grateful that John will continue in his current role through the upcoming fall semester. I also appreciate that Deputy Executive Vice President Tony Sharon will work with him and the IS&T team during this transition. As we begin the search for the right individual to build on what John has accomplished and fill the important role of leading IS&T, I welcome your input regarding potential candidates, as well as thoughts about the role. Please send comments or suggestions via email to me at evpt-hiring@mit.edu, or to Room 4-204. All correspondence received will be treated as confidential.
There will be an occasion to celebrate John and his contributions, but for now, I hope you will join me in expressing our gratitude for his tremendous service to the MIT community.
Sincerely,
Israel Ruiz
Executive Vice President and Treasurer
