Joe Tarter has been selected as the Application Infrastructure Services (AIS) Director for the Division of Information Technology (DoIT) at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Joe will lead the AIS department, which provides infrastructure, platforms and services necessary to build, manage, host, discover and interconnect applications and websites within campus and with the broader community.
“I’m thrilled to have the opportunity to assume the permanent role of Director of Application Infrastructure Services,” said Joe. “This is an incredible time of rapid change on campus and across the IT industry. I’m eager to contribute to a cultural transformation, striving to empower all to lend their voices and their actions towards a user-centric approach to innovative technology in support of UW–Madison.”
Joe has served as interim director for AIS since October 2018. During that time, he directed the efficient execution of a significant organizational restructuring, merging two departments—Enterprise Internet Services (EIS) and part of Application Development & Integration (ADI)—within the Core Services domain of the broader division. Joe has also led the definition, acquisition of sustained funding, and initial stages of implementation of a multi-year, institution-wide initiative to provide enterprise-scale, state of the industry data interoperability and identity and access management services and systems. This initiative will establish a modern program to help UW–Madison lower integration cost, increase agility and choice in IT service providers, and more effectively provide access to services and cybersecurity compliance.
Prior to his interim assignment, Joe was an assistant director in ADI, leading the Integrated Applications team for about five years. He oversaw the complete transformation of that team from primarily focusing on support for DoIT’s internal enterprise resource planning system, to a broad portfolio of custom software development and web site design and development. Before that position, Joe coordinated and facilitated the design, development, delivery and management of a broad set of campus enterprise services, including campus active directory, list services, and authentication and access management.
Joe brings over 20 years of information technology and leadership experience to the role of the AIS Director. He has broad knowledge of the complex web of systems we support at DoIT. He also has many long-term working relationships within DoIT and throughout the university, which position him well to lead major strategic initiatives and the AIS department into the future. Joe’s skills at building high-performing teams and being a strong ally for underrepresented IT professionals is a great asset to the organization. I’m delighted to have Joe in the permanent position.
Joe is a graduate of Texas A&M University, with a Bachelor of Science in Atmospheric Science. He assumes the permanent role effective November 25.
—Dave Pagenkopf, Deputy CIO