Paul Petersen has been in a director in IT at Emory since 2006. In his latest role, he has been the Director of Infrastructure, leading the Systems, Storage, and Messaging Teams. When we began our infrastructure-as-a-service cloud journey with the Emory AWS Service Project, Paul was an active member from the beginning. As we began to spin up our Cloud Infrastructure Migration Project last year, Paul also became an active participant.
Last December, Paul and I discussed the idea of rotating him into an individual contributor role for 6 months and decided to try it. That period ended on May 31 and it has worked out very well — so well, in fact, that Paul and I discussed, and he has agreed to accept, a role of cloud engineer, stepping down from his director position as of June 1, 2018.
Along with the rest of the LITS Leadership team, I am delighted to have Paul in this role. He has been doing great work on the Emory AWS Service Project, and we expect that he’ll also continue to make significant contributions to the Cloud Infrastructure Migration Project. Paul also brings to the role a lot of experience in leadership –this will be invaluable as well as we work on cloud initiatives.
Steve Wheat, the LITS IT Architect, believes Paul is uniquely positioned for this type of work. According to Steve, “Paul displays a singular ability to apply his existing knowledge and learn new frameworks. Over the past year I’ve seen Paul use his considerable systems and infrastructure knowledge while developing considerable skills in his software engineering processes. Paul’s leadership in this area will help position LITS well as IT infrastructure and software engineering merge in Cloud infrastructure and platform services.”
Added Rich Mendola, “I couldn’t be more pleased with Paul’s transition to the role of cloud engineer. The Emory AWS service and Cloud Infrastructure migration projects are some the highest priorities in the LITS portfolio. Paul’s technical and leadership experience, combined with his enthusiasm and ability to quickly master new skills, make him ideally suited for his new role.”
Paul’s new teammates are also excited to have him on the project. “I have the great pleasure of working with Paul Petersen in the Emory Research Cloud Framework Project,” said Circe Tsui. “I have only good things to say. He is fully dedicated to the project as well as his team, and he is really passionate about cloud technologies. With his highly collaborative leadership style, I know that he will guide our cloud initiatives to the next level.”
In terms of the Infrastructure Team organizational structure, for now, we will leave the Director of Infrastructure position unfilled. Steve Siegleman, Dave Hauenstein, and Jay Flanagan will report directly to me, as will Paul in his new role. This is obviously an interim organizational structure — I will continue to update you as we consider next steps. Our planning for the Cloud Infrastructure Migration Project has just begun, and I’m sure that we will be working towards other rotations like Paul’s in the future. Stay tuned.
Please join me in congratulating Paul on his new role and let’s thank him for his many years of service as Director of the Infrastructure Team.
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