MERIT - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Interim Chief Information Officer
Job Titles:
- Executive Director Infrastructure, Information & Technology Services
Job Titles:
- Vice President
- Vice President of Infrastructure Strategy
Bob Stovall, Vice President of Infrastructure Strategy & Research, has an extensive background in networking and has served in several technical and managerial capacities since joining Merit in 1989. Prior to becoming vice president, Bob served as director, department manager, team leader, supervisor, engineer, and technician. He has lead Merit Operations, Engineering, the Network Operations Center, and IT departments. Bob and his team have engineering and operations responsibility for Merit's backbone network, member access circuits and IT services.
Providing technical and strategic leadership for nearly 30 years, Bob has lead or been involved with many high profile and critically important projects contributing to Merit's growth and service to its community. In the '90s, Bob was the technical leader for Merit's dial-in expansion to provide local access to every telephone exchange in Michigan. In 2003 he and his team provided engineering and operational direction and support to move Merit from a circuit leased infrastructure to an owned fiber optic infrastructure based on obtaining fiber IRU access and lighting over 600 miles of infrastructure by 2008.
Job Titles:
- AVP and Chief Information Officer
Job Titles:
- Chief Information Officer
David Dennis is the Chief Information Officer. He is responsible for leading Merit's Technology Services team, consisting of IT, Product Management, Software Development, and Business Systems. His teams manage Merit's product portfolio, ERP, systems infrastructure and internal software tools. The team also provides PMO services to the organization.
David joined Merit Network` in 2012, after 15 years in the web and software development industry, most recently as the Vice President of Operations for Ann Arbor-based Fluency Media. David led a team of marketers, designers, and programmers to provide marketing, web development, hosting, and analytics service offerings for national brand accounts. He also managed the company's research and development initiatives and proprietary technology products.
David holds a Bachelor's degree from The University of Michigan.
Job Titles:
- Vice President for Information Technology and CIO
Job Titles:
- Director of Information Technology
Job Titles:
- in 2010 As Its Senior Accountant
- Inc.'S Vice President for Finance & Administration / CFO
- Vice President & CFO / Finance & Administration
Kathy Micheli is Merit Network, Inc.'s Vice President for Finance & Administration / CFO. She directs the company's finance, human resource, legal, insurance, contracting, and facility functions and plays a key role in shaping its strategic direction.
Kathy joined Merit in 2010 as its senior accountant and immediately helped guide the administrative and operational components of both rounds of the ARRA NTIA/BTOP-funded REACH-3MC project. Promoted to Controller and Director of Financial Services, Kathy co-directed the implementation of Merit's first ERP and forecasting software. These new systems were instrumental in knocking down departmental silos by broadening access to financial and inventory information to facilitate more transparent and strategic decision-making. She leads the annual financial audit, works with management to secure the integrity of human resource and financial information, and serves on the Merit Board of Directors Finance Committee.
Kathy earned her Certified Public Accountant license in 2008. Since then, she has worked with various for-profit and nonprofit companies to implement and improve internal controls to safeguard assets and strengthen the reliability of financial information. Kathy earned her BS in Accounting from Purdue University's Krannert School of Management and spends her free time with her husband and rescue dog from the Bahamas.
Job Titles:
- Chief Information Security Officer
Kevin Hayes is the Chief Information Security Officer at Merit Network, Inc. In this role, Kevin is responsible for the management of IT security controls and products, responding to information security incidents big and small, and providing security policy and strategy guidance to Merit members, system administrators, and management. No stranger to the nonprofit world, Kevin has previously worked at Wayne State University, creating and directing the team of cyber professionals dedicated to keeping the organization secure. Kevin holds both CISSP and CISM certifications, is a member of the Governor's Cyber Civilian Corps, and has been heard talking about security issues from time to time on the Detroit television stations WDIV-TV and WXYZ-TV, as well as the Detroit public radio station WDET-FM.
Job Titles:
- Vice President for Network Technology
- Vice President for Network Technology and Innovation
Michael Milliken is the Vice President for Network Technology and Innovation. His responsibilities encompass a wide variety of strategic technology issues including technology adoption, governance and policy, recourse allocations, capacity planning, engineering, network architecture, and operations of Merit's network. Prior to his role as Vice President, and as Executive Director & Director before that, Michael served as a Senior Network Engineer with responsibilities ranging from engineering, field operations, provisioning and service delivery, including network maintenance and monitoring. Michael's background includes over 20 years in the information technology, network operations, cybersecurity and telecommunications industries, with experience in the service provider (SP) and large enterprise arenas, and designing, deploying, securing, operating, maintaining, and troubleshooting large-scale networks.
Job Titles:
- Vice President and Chief Digital Officer, Information Technology
Job Titles:
- Chief Information Officer
- Interim Vice President
Job Titles:
- Interim Chief Information Officer and Associate Vice President, Computing & Information Technology
Roger Blake is currently the President and CEO of Merit Network, Inc., a non-profit corporation governed by Michigan's public universities. Merit owns and operates the nation's longest-running regional research and education network, having been formed in 1966 by the University of Michigan, Michigan State University and Wayne State University. Michigan's public universities created Merit as a shared resource to help meet their common need for advanced networking, and it is currently considered a national leader in this area. In the late 1980s through the early 1990s, Merit operated the National Science Foundation Network, the precursor to the modern Internet. Today, Merit provides high-performance networking, cyber security solutions and community-building services to nearly 400 higher education, K-12, library, governmental, community and healthcare organizations, among others.
Mr. Blake joined Merit after a distinguished career in the industry working for a global Internet Service Provider and a leading cybersecurity technology innovator. He continues as a public servant in his role on his local community K12 school board. He is a Detroit Regional Chamber of Commerce "Leadership Detroit" Fellow (LDXXXIII). In 2016 served as a member of the State of Michigan's 21st Century Infrastructure Commission, charged with developing a first-of-its-kind nationally 50-year vision for improving the state's transportation, water, energy, and network infrastructure and enhancing the quality of life for all Michiganders.