School of Information Technology Distinguished Alumni Award
The School of Information Technology presents the Distinguished Alumni Award in recognition of alumni who have demonstrated outstanding performance in their profession and have made outstanding contributions to the community, state or nation. The School of Information Technology is extremely proud of our alumni who have been honored as Distinguished Alumni Award recipients.
Lance Rogers - 2011 School of Information Technology Distinguished Alumni Award Recipient.
Lance E. Rogers is an Information Technology Manager in Caterpillar's Global Information Services Division. Lance is Vice-Chair of the School of Information Technology's Business and Industry Advisory Council (BIAC), an active Caterpillar recruiter at ISU, and a regular guest lecturer for IT classes. A Bone Scholar and Presidential
Scholar, Lance graduated Magna Cum Laude from ISU in 1991 with a B.S. in Applied Computer Science and French. He later earned an M.B.A. from Bradley University.
Rogers began his career at Caterpillar in 1995 and has served in a number of IT development, support, marketing, and implementation roles. Prior to joining Caterpillar, Lance worked for Andersen Consulting [Accenture] in support of its logistics' practice. Lance's primary role at Caterpillar has been as an IT Deployment Manager for installations of Inventory Management Systems, Warehousing Systems, Manufacturing Systems, Order Management Systems, and Financial Systems. This includes the installation of both proprietary solutions and off-the-shelf packages such as SAP. In addition, Lance is a PMI-certified Project Management Professional (PMP®) and an IMA-certified Management Accountant (CMA®).
Peter Tapling - 2010 School of Information Technology Distinguished Alumni Award Recipient.
Peter Tapling (B.S. Applied Computer Science, 1982) is president and CEO at Authentify, Inc., the leading provider of OOBA (out-of-band authentication) services. He has held this position since co-founding the company in 1999. Mr. Tapling has spent over 25 years in the software industry, mostly with start-up companies bringing new technologies onto the information technology landscape.
Mr. Tapling has been an active participant in information security industry standards committees dating back to the group that created the DoD Orange Book. Notably, he participated in the American Bar Association Digital Signature Committee, which developed the Digital Signature Guidelines document, and the IETF PKIX working group. He has provided a draft review of the digital signature legislation that was eventually approved by the State of Illinois.
Mr. Tapling is chairman of the Business and Industry Advisory Council for the School of Information Technology and is on the board of advisors to the dean of the College of Applied Science and Technology at Illinois State University. Mr. Tapling serves on the executive committee of the board of directors of the Illinois Technology Association and is a board member for The Big Idea Forum. He is an active advisor to entrepreneurs and early stage companies.
Jeffery Ricketts - 2009 School of Information Technology Distinguished Alumni Award Recipient.
Jeffrey Rickets '83 is a senior-level information systems manager and consulting professional with more than 25 years of experience and proven leadership, technical, and operations management skills. He has served in various roles at several organizations, including executive director, Information Technology at AT&T; assistant vice president, Information Technology at SBC; and strategic director, Information Technology at Ameritech.
He is a respected leader with a strong reputation for developing relationships with key business partners, managing stakeholder interests, establishing and achieving measurable objectives, and developing leadership skills in others. In addition, Rickets has significant corporate and consulting experience in telecommunications and financial services industries, as well as customer care/contact center operations.
Rickets has directed organizations ranging from 60 to more than 500 IT professionals, including leading teams through large mergers/acquisitions and outsourcing of application development/computer operations.
