Leadership

Steve Gallagher

Chief Information Officer

Steve Gallagher is the Chief Information Officer of Stanford University. He leads University IT, a world-class technology services organization that partners with faculty, students, staff, and alumni to advance the teaching, learning, research, and healthcare mission. UIT manages Stanford’s enterprise business applications, collaboration technology, data warehouse, business intelligence, network engineering, telecommunications, web services, client services, and advancement systems. He jointly leads the Information Security Office and the Research Computing group.

Steve serves as a member of the University Cabinet and on the SLAC National Laboratory Board of Overseers Committee on Business, Technology, Audit and Compliance. He also co-chairs the Stanford CIO Council which is comprised of Stanford’s technology leaders from across campus. Steve reports to the Vice President for Business Affairs and Chief Financial Officer.

Steve previously served as the CIO of the Harvard Business School and as CIO of the University of San Francisco. Before his time in higher education, he served in executive leadership roles in the venture capital and financial technology sectors in San Francisco, New York, and Boston.

Steve has a BS from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and an MBA from the Harvard Business School.

Brad Immanuel

Executive Director for Client Experience & Solutions

Brad Immanuel is the Executive Director for Client Experience & Solutions (CXS), a senior role on the UIT leadership team. CXS is the face of UIT services, helping Stanford University and Stanford Medicine clients acquire and use technology successfully.

CXS teams span many functions, including solution-building teams (Endpoint Engineering and Development, Stanford Web Services, the Technology Consulting Group, Client Infrastructure Services Group, Card Services, Technology Training, and the Office of Digital Accessibility), as well as end-user services teams (UIT Service Desk, Healthcare Account Team, Computer Resource Consulting, Mobile Device Services, Paging Services, the Stanford University Hardware Program, and Cardinal Print, and two 24/7 teams: Operator Services Center and IT Operations Center).

Brad joined Stanford in 2011. He previously served in several positions at UCSF, including IT director for the Department of Anesthesia. Prior to joining academia, he worked as an IT manager at the Center for Citizen Initiatives in San Francisco, providing economic development programs to former Soviet republics shortly after the Cold War.

Brad received his Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Pepperdine University.

Ganesh Karkala

Chief Technology Officer and Associate Vice President for Enterprise Technology

Ganesh is the Chief Technology Officer and Associate Vice President for Enterprise Technology. He is responsible for the implementation and support of the enterprise applications and systems that run the business of the university, and the underlying complex technology stack. In addition to supporting major enterprise systems (financials, HR, student records, research administration, alumni and donor), Ganesh partners with schools and business units to identify and implement efficient, cost-effective IT solutions. Learn more about Enterprise Technology.

Ganesh has more than 20 years of experience leading technology operations and initiatives across large-scale, complex organizations, both in the US and internationally. His expertise spans application development, infrastructure management, program office management, mergers and acquisitions, and prudent application of business and technology standards such as COBIT, ITIL, and PMBOK.

Ganesh joined Stanford as the Director of Financial Systems in 2006. In 2007, he became the Executive Director of Administrative Systems and was promoted to Associate Vice President in 2009. Prior to Stanford, Ganesh was the Senior Director for Technical Services at Oracle USA. At Oracle, he managed large-scale development projects and programs, including Oracle’s Global Single Instance technical consolidation program, which resulted in $2 billion in savings for the company.

Ganesh has a Bachelor of Science in Instrumentation Technology from the University of Mysore and a Master of Science in Computer Engineering from Mississippi State University.

Nan McKenna

Interim Executive Director, Research Computing

Nan McKenna is interim executive director for Research Computing in University IT. Jointly reporting to the Dean of Research and the Stanford CIO, Nan and the Stanford Research Computing team engage with researchers and technologists across a wide spectrum of disciplines to support a growing portfolio of research technologies and cyberinfrastructure services.

The team is focused on ensuring all campus researchers have access to strong, sufficient, relevant, and robust data and computational platforms and services to accelerate scientific discovery and scholarship, advancing Stanford's research mission. Learn more about Research Computing.

Nan has been at Stanford for more than 45 years, as a student and a staff member. She began her career in Undergraduate Admissions and Financial Aid, moving into IT as a project manager for the implementation of Stanford’s first integrated enterprise student system. Within UIT, Nan has served as Director for Client Relations, and as a Senior Project Manager, specializing in organization and campus-wide projects in areas such as cloud computing, security and infrastructure systems. 

Nan holds a Bachelor of Arts in Drama and a Master’s degree in Higher Ed Administration and Policy Analysis from Stanford.

Molly Reynick

Executive Director for Finance

Molly Reynick is the Executive Director for Finance in University IT. Her organization is comprised of Finance, Vendor Management, and Service Systems & Solutions. Together, these teams ensure outstanding stewardship of university resources. As UIT’s financial portfolio regularly expands in size and complexity, so does our portfolio of vendor contracts and the range of services that require charge-back to users.

Molly joined Stanford in May 2002 and spent two years each in the H&S Dean's Office and the Office of Human Resources before joining IT Services as a Senior Financial Analyst in 2006. Since then, Molly steadily worked her way through various financial positions within the IT organization before her promotion to executive director. In her current role, Molly oversees UIT’s $250+ million annual budget and a team of more than 25 professionals.

Molly holds a Bachelor of Science in Managerial Economics from the University of California at Davis and a Master of Business Administration from Notre Dame de Namur University.

Amy Steagall

Chief Information Security Officer

Amy Steagall is the Chief Information Security Officer at Stanford University. She reports to the Chief Information Officer of Stanford University and to the Senior Associate Vice President and Chief Risk Officer.

Amy leads the Information Security Office which oversees Stanford’s efforts to protect its computing and information assets and to comply with information-related laws, regulations, and policies. Learn more about the Information Security Office.

Amy joined Stanford in 2020. Prior to joining the Stanford team, Amy retired from the United States Air Force after 25 years of distinguished and honorable service. Throughout her career she consistently led large organizations and teams culminating in her role at the Joint Force Headquarters-Cyber at NSA Texas where she led cyber mission teams operating in complex security environments and specializing in offensive and defensive cyberspace operations.

Amy holds a Bachelor of Science in Cybersecurity Management and Policy from University of Maryland.

Sam Steinhardt

Assistant Vice President for IT Infrastructure

Sam leads the IT Infrastructure team in UIT, which includes enterprise telephony, contact center solutions, audio/visual technologies, technical facilities, cloud hosting, and many essential services for Stanford Health Care and Stanford Children’s Health. Sam drives several critical strategic initiatives that substantially impact all of the schools and units, including guiding a strategy for the transformation and modernization of administrative systems that support faculty and oversight of the Google Workspace Optimization project.

Sam has provided administrative leadership at Stanford since 1999. Initially, he was the Chief Financial and Operations Officer for Learning Technology and Extended Education, where he directed an array of organizations utilizing new media to export academic content to non-traditional audiences. From 2002 to 2006, Sam was the Executive Director of the Stanford Center for Innovations in Learning and Wallenberg Hall, which provided advanced resource classrooms and state-of-the-art facilities for research in learning and education, both locally and internationally. 

From 2006 to 2015, Sam served as the Executive Director for Business Services in Stanford’s IT Services organization. In 2015, he became the Assistant Vice President for UIT Shared Services. Prior to joining Stanford, Sam was the CFO for a privately held systems integration firm. Earlier in his career, he spent six years at KPMG (now Bearing Point) and then founded and managed Steinhardt Associates, a general management consulting firm.

Sam holds a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy from Stanford and an MBA from UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business.

Nancy Ware

Chief of Staff, Office of the CIO

Nancy leads the Office of the CIO in partnership with Steve Gallagher to articulate and advance UIT strategies and priorities, harmonize processes, and invest in people. Along with her oversight of UIT's communications, organizational effectiveness, HR, and administrative teams, Nancy integrates and coordinates internal governing activities such as the leadership team, senior management team, and more. 

Another key aspect of Nancy’s chief of staff role is to integrate campus-wide initiatives as well as to operationalize and coordinate the Stanford-wide IT governance framework. This includes C-ACIS (faculty governance), SGG (systems priorities and investments), and CIO Council (leading Stanford-wide IT programs and initiatives). 

Nancy attended Stanford University where she studied Human Biology.

Learn more about the Office of the CIO.