Greetings ITSMF Family!
ITSMF is in an exciting chapter!
I have just finished my first year as President and CEO of this amazing organization. Coming in, my Year One priorities included:
- Increasing ITSMF Fundraising
- Investing in Human Capital
- Increasing Brand Awareness
- Spearheading Organizational Capacity Building
- Making Progress on Board Strategic Goals
Not a list for the faint of heart! I am pleased to share some of the successes we experienced. In fundraising, our revenue is currently over $3,000,000—the largest level we have ever seen. ITSMF welcomed 16 NEW Corporate Partners this year. Plus, we spent time meeting with and better understanding the strategic visions of each of our existing Corporate Partners—all 42 of them. Finally, we have secured Two vibranium partnerships, which represent increased stability and opportunity for future ITSMF initiatives.
We have also returned to Hugging and the Heart of ITSMF. After two years of distance, we’ve hosted safe, in-person events that bring our ITSMF family back together. In fact, we launched our first Ignite Networking event at World Wide Technology in St. Louis and held two, in-person regional networking events. Plus, we’ve offered in-person and hybrid symposia.
And what a family! We are nearly 500 members strong! Our expanded membership supports so many wonderful programs at ITSMF, including our Author’s Corner, which highlights members and industry thought leaders, and our Member Mondays, which recognizes the amazing accomplishments and contributions our members make to strengthen the industry.
Finally, we are nurturing more Black technology professionals than ever before! We graduated the largest-ever Executive and Emerge Academy cohorts and sustained record enrollment levels for our Management Academy. We also collaborated with our partner, Johnson & Johnson, to host the inaugural joint ITSMF/HITEC leadership development program.
I had a lot of support in achieving these successes, and I am thankful for everyone who assisted in these strategic efforts.
Looking ahead, we have set ambitious, but exciting, priorities for 2023. Together, we will be working toward:
- Diversifying and Increasing Revenue
- Expanding GIPD: Ignite Academy, Board Bound, CxO Retreat
- Increasing member engagement and reducing lapsed membership
- Launching a Participant Engagement and Outcome Portal
- Planning a 2024 Golf Fundraiser
- Beginning a Strategic Planning Process
- Increasing Brand Awareness
Part of our 2023 Big Vision includes efforts to maintain our corporate focus on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. ITSMF will no longer be the “best kept secret.” Instead, we will be THE go-to organization for companies committed to diversifying their C-suite.
Next, the leadership team is intentionally focused on increasing the technology pipeline and the pace in which we do it. It took us 26 years to graduate 1,000 academy alums. We want to graduate 1,000 more leaders within the next five years.
Finally, we are determined to increase Black wealth through tech entrepreneurship growth. The next Black Panther will be cultivated and developed within the ITSMF ecosystem! We want to help $2-5M Black tech founders scale their businesses to $500 million and we want to start by generating $3M to help them.
I hope these goals inspire you as much as they do me and my team. Together, we are continuing the vision of our courageous founders who boldly disrupted the status quo by dreaming big and working incredibly hard. I hope we can count on your support to help ITSMF reach new heights.
President and CEO, ITSMF
About Information Technology Senior Management Forum
Since 1996, Information Technology Senior Management Forum (ITSMF) has been dedicated to increasing the representation of Black professionals at senior levels in technology to impact organizational innovation and growth. We do this by developing and nurturing these dynamic leaders through enrichment of the mind, body and soul. At its inception, only 3% of senior-level positions in the technology industry were held by Blacks. With a half-million new computer-related jobs expected by 2028, ITSMF is committed to increasing the number of qualified Black professionals for these positions. For more information about ITSMF, visit www.itsmfleaders.org.