Abstract:
George Wang will share his 30 year career journey as a lifelong learner graduating as a computer engineer from UIUC to join Motorola as a software engineer implementing the world’s first digital cellphone. Later he held both technology and business roles in 7 different industries and served briefly as a Chief Information Officer for the State of Illinois and is now the Chief Marketing Officer for Peterson Technology Partners. If you’ve been curious about where your career might take you, from either startups to large enterprise firms, either in technology or business side roles, George shares his own journey that might help you plan your own future.
Bio:
George Wang is a business technology leader, innovator and translator, having held senior roles in both technology and business areas. He implemented multiple technology “firsts” in wireless telecom, insurance, financial services, healthcare and education. His 25+ year journey through startup, mid-cap and Fortune 500 firms has given him a broad industry perspective of the common as well as unique business and people challenges in enabling technology transformation and innovation. During the second half of his career, George has been passionate about implementing change in the social good areas of education and healthcare, something that every human is entitled to regardless of socio-economic class.
George is currently Chief Marketing Officer for Peterson Technology Partners and board member at Arx Nimbus, a Cybersecurity software startup that mathematically quantifies risk, using regulatory frameworks, into financial terms. Previously he was Cluster CIO for the State of Illinois, focused on our Students (K-12, Community Colleges and Universities). Prior to that, he was Technical Director, New Business Development at Stericycle, where he launched a new Healthcare IT startup investment fund SteriVentures LLC, identified new business service lines and led the technical M&A assessment of two major acquisitions out of the 300+ that Stericycle has completed.
George has a BS in Computer Engineering from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and a MS in Engineering Management from National Technological University (the very first graduate-level accredited satellite distance learning institution in America). He is a Board Member of SIM Chicago, former PMI Chicago Executive Council Vice-Chair and former AITP Governance Co-Chair. He has also been a volunteer mentor for various healthcare startup accelerators including Chicago's MATTER and HealthBox and is a strategic advisor for MondoPoint LLC which is part of the MATTER incubator.
Interesting Fact: George was one of four software engineers selected to implement America's first digital (IS-54 TDMA) cellular phone for Motorola. The very first American digital cellular call was actually transmitted in Illinois in 1991 and 30 years later we have over 7 billion digital cellular handsets in use globally.
