Temple Fox School's Eighth Annual IT Awards Honor Cristobal Conde of SunGard, Matthew Mullenweg of Automattic, Inc. and Joe Weiss of Electronic Ink

Business Wire, April 1, 2008

PHILADELPHIA -- Temple University's Fox School of Business and Management is honoring three top technology leaders at its eighth Annual Fox Information Technology Awards on Wednesday, April 9. Awardees include Cristobal Conde, president and chief executive officer of SunGard Data Systems Inc.; Matthew Charles Mullenweg, founder, primary developer, and chief BBQ taste tester of Automattic, Inc.; and Joe Weiss (BBA, Fox School; Juris Doctorate, Temple Law), chairman of Electronic Ink.

The awards will be presented during a reception at 5:30 p.m. in Mitten Hall's Great Court, on Temple University's main campus. This event is organized by the Fox School's Department of Management Information Systems (MIS), its Institute for Business and Information Technology (IBIT), and the Association for Management Information Systems.

"These awards recognize outstanding role models in industry for our students, leaders and innovators who are creating business opportunities by guiding the use and development of IT in business," said Munir Mandviwalla, chair of the MIS department.

Conde will receive the Fox Information Technology Leader Award for leadership in the use and development of IT in business, and Mullenweg will receive the Fox Information Technology Innovator Award for applying IT to create business opportunity. Weiss will receive the Fox Information Technology Award for Distinguished Alumni given in recognition of his distinguished career in IT and his contribution to the community, industry and Temple University. The event will also recognize excellence in leadership among the school's MIS faculty, administration and student body.

"This year's winners continue the excellent tradition that the Fox School of Business has for recognizing outstanding contributors to the information technology world," said Bruce Fadem, Fox MIS advisory board chair and former VP and CIO of Wyeth.

The high caliber of the recipients also reflects the growing stature of the MIS programs at Temple. In 2008, Academic Analytics ranked the Fox School's MIS Faculty in the top ten for research productivity in the U.S.

Conde, winner of the Fox Information Technology Leader Award, has been SunGard's chief executive officer since 2002, president since 2000, and has served as a member of its board of directors since 1999. He served as chief operating officer between 1999 and 2002 and previously headed up SunGard's Trading Systems group. In August 2005, Conde guided SunGard in a leveraged buy-out valued at $11.5 billion. SunGard is now the largest privately held business software and IT services company. Prior to joining SunGard, Conde co-founded Devon Systems International, Inc., which was acquired by SunGard in 1987. At the time, Devon focused on providing systems for the interest rate and currency derivatives markets.

Mullenweg, winner of the Fox Information Technology Innovator, is the founding developer of WordPress, blogging software used by thousands of bloggers and millions of readers of blogs worldwide. Since 2003, Mullenweg has worked on developing the open source software and several related tools for WordPress. Mullenweg is also the founder, primary developer, and Chief BBQ Taste Tester of Automattic, a privately held firm that is responsible for WordPress.com. In addition, he co-founded the Global Multimedia Protocols Group, an effort to represent human relationships on the web. Mullenweg is responsible for co-writing Ping-O-Matic, a blog notification tool, and releasing Akismet, a distributed anti-spam service. In March 2007, PC World named Mullenweg #16 of the 50 Most Important People on the Web.

Weiss, winner of the Fox IT Award for Distinguished Alumni, is chairman of Electronic Ink, a leading international design firm. As chairman, Weiss provides leadership for Electronic Ink's operations from business development to process improvements. Previously, Weiss was the chairman-CEO of Packard Press, Inc., the region's leading financial, legal and commercial printing company. For two decades prior, Weiss practiced corporate law, representing major corporate clients in banking, media and professional sports. In broadcasting, he owned and operated three radio stations, and in print, he previously published The Legal Intelligencer and the Pennsylvania Law Journal. Weiss also holds a volunteer leadership position in the Temple Law Alumni Association where he serves as president, and he is a member of the Board of Directors of Temple University Alumni Association.

"The Fox School's Information Technology Awards have become a tradition in the Greater Philadelphia region's IT community," said M. Moshe Porat, dean of the Fox School. "Through our innovative programs and by integrating Management Information Systems into teaching, learning and research, we are responding to the needs of the industry within this region and educating the IT leaders of tomorrow."

The Fox School's MIS Department focuses on research and teaching on the use, management and development of organizational information systems. To guide its curriculum and research, the department focuses on the concept of integration. The Institute for Business and Information Technology enables business technology education and research by organizing professional development activities, research workshops, and other activities.