Bentley University has appointed Phillip Knutel as Chief Information Officer. The move is fitting for the 15-year Bentley veteran who most recently served as the university’s Executive Director of Academic Technology, the Library, and Online Learning. As CIO, he will serve as the principal technology leader, overseeing a $19M budget and more than 100 staff from seven IT units: the Library, Academic Technology Center, Administrative Computing, Client Services, Systems, Networking and Telecommunications, Classroom Presentation Technologies, and Information Security and Privacy.

“Phil’s influence at Bentley has been far-reaching as he has worked closely with faculty, students, departments, and central IT directors on significant IT projects,” says Bentley President Gloria Cordes Larson. “His innovative and cutting edge thinking is one of the reasons Bentley has been able to stay ahead of the technology curve.”

Knutel will initially focus on implementing dozens of recommendations in a recent IT Assessment report by Grant Thornton, including strategic initiatives in areas such as online learning, emerging technologies, administrative systems, and disaster recovery. Under his leadership, his IT colleagues will work together to advance technology in all areas of Bentley’s operations for the benefit of students, faculty and staff.

A prolific speaker on technology issues with dozens of conference presentations and keynotes to his credit, Knutel has been quoted by The Associated Press, The Boston Business Journal, The Boston Globe, Campus Technology, CBS Marketwatch, The Chronicle of Higher Education, C/NET Radio, Enterprise Applications, The Los Angeles Times, Mass High Tech, National Public Radio, Network World, Sound & Communications, University Business, and USA Today.  He has served as a Panel Chair and Panel Reviewer for a $132M National Science Foundation grant program on technology use in education, and authored grant proposals that have generated $300K in external funding.  He is a Steering Committee member for the Boston Higher Education Innovation Council.

When Knutel first joined Bentley in 1998, he worked with faculty, students, senior administrators and architects to design state-of-the-art academic technology facilities that today include the largest and most sophisticated Trading Room in higher education, the Media and Culture Labs and Studio, User Experience Center, Computing and Information Systems Sandbox, Center for Marketing Technology, Accounting Center for Electronic Learning and Business Measurement, and Center for Languages and International Collaboration. His work helped Bentley earn recognition such as the 2013 UBTech Innovation Award Finalist, a #1 ranking in state-of-the-art campus facilities from The Princeton Review in their 2009 and 2010 Best 296 Business Schools guidebook, and the 2001 EDUCAUSE Excellence in Campus Networking Award.  In his role as executive director of Academic Technology, the Library, and Online Learning, Knutel oversaw 36 staff, a $7M budget, and 65 applications that included the second highest-trafficked server on campus (Blackboard), as well as a major data migration of 180,000 records to a new integrated library system. In 2006, Knutel oversaw a $17M state-of-the-art library renovation that introduced one of the first RFID collection management systems in the area, and increased gate count 470 percent. Coupled with a focus on service and over 80 online databases, the library gained national attention and ranked #14 in the U.S. in The Princeton Review’s 2011 Guide.

Prior to joining Bentley, Knutel was Director of Academic Technology in the Office of Academic Outreach at the University of Michigan. He received his PhD in higher education from Michigan, an EdM in administration, planning, and social policy from Harvard, and a BS in human and organizational development from Vanderbilt.