Biography

PAUL A. STRASSMANN's career includes service as chief information systems executive (1956-1978; 1990-1993, and 2002-2003), vice-president of strategic planning for office automation (1978-1985), and information systems advisor (1986 to date).

Mr. Strassmann is president of The Information Economics Press and is Senior Advisor to the Science Applications International Corporation. He serves on the Board of Editors of the Information Economics Journal, on the Board of Visitors, School of Information Studies at the Syracuse University, and holds the position of Distinguished Professor of Information Sciences at the School of Information Technology and Engineering at George Mason University.

His globally syndicated monthly commentaries about I.T. investments have appeared in Computerworld magazine since 1994. Strassmann holds registered U.S. trademarks for Return-on-Management®, R-O-M®, Information Productivity® and Knowledge Capital®.

After serving as an advisor to the Deputy Secretary of Defense since 1990 he was appointed in 1991 to a newly created position of Director of Defense Information. He was responsible for organizing and managing the corporate information management (CIM) program across the Department of Defense which included a $35 billion cost reduction and business reengineering program of the defense information infrastructure. He is a 1993 recipient of the Defense Medal for Distinguished Public Service - the Defense Department's highest civilian recognition.

In 2002 he was recalled to government service as the acting Chief Information Officer of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, with direct responsibility and accountability for the NASA computing and telecommunication information infrastructure. After completing his assignments in 2003 he retired from government service after receiving the NASA Exceptional Service Medal for improving the I.T. architecture, security, and services.

Strassmann joined Xerox in 1969 as director of administration and information systems with worldwide responsibility for all internal Xerox computer activities. From 1972 to 1976 he served as general manager of its Information Services Division which included all central computer operations, telecommunications networks, administrative services, software development and management consulting services. He introduced major innovations in global telecommunication management. From 1976 to 1978 he was corporate director responsible for world-wide computer, telecommunications and administrative functions. He was key contributor to shaping business Xerox strategy for office automation. He developed new methods for evaluating the productivity of computer investments.

Until his retirement from Xerox he served as vice president of strategic planning for the Information Products Group, with responsibility for strategic investments, acquisitions and product plans involving the corporation's world-wide electronic businesses. After his retirement he became author, lecturer and consultant to firms such as AT&T, Citicorp, Digital Equipment, General Electric, General Motors, IBM, ING, SAIC, Shell Oil, Sun Microsystems, and Texas Instruments.

He has held appointments as Adjunct Professor at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, Visiting Professor at the University of Connecticut, and Visiting Professor at the Imperial College, in London, England.

His public involvement includes presentations to the Senate, the House of Representatives, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve, the British House of Commons, and the USSR Council of Ministers.

Prior to joining Xerox, Strassmann held the job of Corporate Information Officer for the General Foods Corporation and afterwards as the Chief Information Systems executive for the Kraft Corporation from 1960 through 1969. His involvement with computers dates back to 1954 when he designed a method for scheduling toll collection personnel on the basis of punch card toll receipts. He earned an engineering degree from the Cooper Union, New York, and a master's degree in industrial management from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA.

He is author of over 250 articles on information management and information worker productivity. His 1985 book Information Payoff: The Transformation of Work in the Electronic Age is now in its 10th printing, and appears in Japanese, Russian, Italian, and Brazilian translations. His 1990 book, The Business Value of Computers, now translated into Japanese, shows result of his research on the relation between information technology and profitability of firms. His 1993 book, The Politics of Information Management offers guidelines on organization of the information function for greatest effectiveness. A companion volume, The Irreverent Dictionary of Information Politics reflects on the inconsistencies in information management practices. His 1997 book, The Squandered Computer, offers specific recommendations on how to obtain better value from investments in information technologies, and was Amazon.com's #1 best selling book on information management in 1998. His latest book, Information Productivity - Assessing the Information Management Costs of U.S. Industrial Corporations includes an information productivity ranking of 1,585 U.S. firms. Strassmann has published research studies on the web. The first eleven studies are now appearing at The Information Economics Press Digital Bookstore.

Strassmann was chairman of the committee on information workers for the White House Conference on Productivity and served on the Department of Defense Federal Advisory Board for Information Management, the Army Science Board, and the Defense Science Board. He is a life member of the Data Processing Management Association, Chartered Fellow of the British Computer Society, senior member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers, and member of the honorary engineering society Tau Beta Pi. He authored the code of conduct for data processing professionals, was recipient of the 1992 Award for Achievement by the Association for Federal Information Resource Management, received the 1992 International Industry Award for advancing the adoption of Open Systems, the 1996 Excellence Award for Business Engineering, and was named to the CIO Hall of Fame in 1997 by CIO Magazine as one of the twelve most influential CIOs of the decade. In 2000, he was cited by the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Command, Control and Intelligence for his pioneering work as one of the executives responsible for advancing the cause of U.S. information superiority.

Strassmann served in a guerilla combat unit of the Czechoslovak Army from 1944 to the end of the war in 1945.

Fax: 203-966-5506
email: paul@strassmann.com
web site: www.strassmann.com