Help Desk Gets New Director

In early October, Jon Russell joined University IT as the new director for the IT Service Desk. Jon brings a wealth of knowledge and experience, coming up the coast about 85 miles to Stanford from the Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center (DLI) in Monterey where he served as the Deputy Chief of Staff for Information Technology and CIO for the past four years. In that role, he had oversight of IT support, network operations, datacenter operations, cybersecurity, and application support for the 6,000 DLI students, faculty, and staff.  Jon oversaw the implementation of one of the largest mobile device management programs within the Department of Defense.  Prior to that, Jon spent six years at the Naval Postgraduate School, most recently serving as Director of Academic Systems. He was responsible for the enterprise learning management system, help desk operations, video & audiovisual operations, classroom technology support, and new technology evaluation.

Jon is quickly getting his bearings and is looking for opportunities to better align the service with Stanford’s needs. Extended service hours is the first of planned improvements to the IT Service Desk intended to enhance the overall customer experience. University IT will introduce more improvements over the coming year.