ACM APPOINTS NEW CEO, Indiana University’s Schnabel Takes Top Staff Position at World’s Largest Computing Society
New York, NY (PRWEB) June 18, 2015 -- ACM, the Association for Computing Machinery (http://www.acm.org), has named Robert (“Bobby”) Schnabel executive director and CEO effective November 1, 2015. Schnabel joins ACM after eight years as professor and dean of the School of Informatics and Computing at Indiana University. As ACM’s most senior staff member, Schnabel will work with ACM’s volunteer community to provide strategic vision and to develop sustainable business models to ensure ACM’s continued worldwide membership, publications and revenue growth.
“I am extremely excited to have Bobby take up the CEO role at ACM,” said ACM President Alexander L. Wolf. “Bobby has a special passion and bright new ideas that will help continue the great tradition of leadership, innovation, openness and growth that has marked the history of ACM.”
Schnabel says of his new position, “I am delighted to have the opportunity to serve as ACM’s next CEO, building on the great contributions of John White. I look forward to working with the incredible volunteers and excellent staff of ACM to make progress on the exciting opportunities and challenges facing ACM, including its evolution as a fully international society, transforming publishing and access models, keeping up with the ever-changing pace of computing research, enhancing diversity, and serving the broad range of technical leaders and practitioners.”
Schnabel succeeds John R. White, ACM’s first executive director to be named CEO, who will retire after nearly 17 years on July 31. ACM COO Patricia Ryan will serve as acting executive director until Schnabel assumes his new role in November. White joined ACM as CEO after serving for 17 years in various volunteer positions culminating in his term as ACM President (1990 – 1992) while a research manager at Xerox PARC’s Computer Science Laboratory.
Schnabel has a long history of service to the computing community. He has served in several capacities, including chair, of ACM’s Special Interest Group on Numerical Mathematics (ACM SIGNUM). When Schnabel assumes his role as CEO, he will step down as founding chair of the ACM Education Policy Committee, which led to the creation of Computer Science Education Week in the U.S., and the formation of the industry/non-profit coalition, Computing in the Core. Schnabel also serves as board member of code.org, and as a member of the advisory committee of the Computing and Information Science and Engineering directorate of the National Science Foundation. He has served as a board member of the Computing Research Association.
Dedicated to improving diversity in computing, Schnabel is a co-founder and executive team member of the National Center for Women & Information Technology (NCWIT), a major non-profit organization in the U.S. for the full participation of girls and women in computing and information technology. He also serves as chair of the Computing Alliance for Hispanic-Serving Institutions Advisory Board.
A Fellow of ACM and SIAM, Schnabel has a technical background in numerical computation, and he has published more than 100 peer-reviewed papers in this area. He has served as editor-in-chief of SIAM Review and as associate editor of several journals, including SIAM Journal on Optimization, Mathematical Programming A, Mathematical Programming B and Operations Research Letters.
As dean of the School of Informatics and Computing at Indiana University, Schnabel leads an organization of approximately 150 faculty, 100 staff, 3,500 students, and an annual budget of nearly $60 million. He also served as interim Vice President for Research during 2009 – 2010, providing strategic leadership for all Indiana University research activities.
Prior to Indiana University, Schnabel was professor of computer science at the University of Colorado, Boulder for 30 years. While at CU-Boulder, Schnabel served as CIO and Vice Provost / Associate Vice Chancellor for Academic and Campus Technology; as founding director of the Alliance for Technology, Learning and Society (ATLAS) Institute; as chair of Computer Science; and as Associate Dean for Academic Affairs of the College of Engineering and Applied Science.
A graduate of Dartmouth College in Mathematics, Schnabel earned his Master's degree and his Ph.D. in Computer Science from Cornell University.
About ACM
ACM, the Association for Computing Machinery http://www.acm.org, is the world’s largest educational and scientific computing society, uniting computing educators, researchers and professionals to inspire dialogue, share resources and address the field’s challenges. ACM strengthens the computing profession’s collective voice through strong leadership, promotion of the highest standards, and recognition of technical excellence. ACM supports the professional growth of its members by providing opportunities for life-long learning, career development, and professional networking.
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Bruce Shriver, ACM, http://www.acm.org, +1 (212) 626-0521, [email protected]
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