Business management’s Jason Thatcher to head global technology association

CLEMSON — Jason Thatcher, professor of Information Systems in the management department of the College of Business and Behavioral Science at Clemson University, has been elected president of the Association for Information Systems, an international organization for academics specializing in information systems.

He will serve as president-elect effective July 1, 2015, as president the following year and as immediate past president in 2017-2018. The association’s mission is to advance knowledge in the use of IT to improve organizational performance and individual quality of work life.

“It’s a real honor to lead a 4,000-plus academic organization with members in more than 150 countries,” said Thatcher. “We administer programs for members in all phases of their careers and promote research and problem-solving through information systems.

Jason Thatcher, professor of information systems, has been elected president of the Association for Information Systems.

“It’s a huge honor for me personally, but an honor for Clemson as well. I have spent my entire career at Clemson. It validates that Clemson develops faculty who become recognized as worldwide leaders. Information Systems at Clemson has become very prominent; we now rank in the top 10 globally in information research and serve as leaders in our field.”

Thatcher is the founding director of the Social Analytics Institute (SAI). SAI conducts funded research that examines social and computing challenges sparked by the emergence of new social technologies for individuals, organizations and society. It involves students in projects, through Clemson’s Creative Inquiry and University Professional Internship and Co-op programs. In founding SAI, Thatcher partnered with Clemson Computing and Information Technology to raise more than $7.5 million from grants, contracts and gifts-in-kind from the National Science Foundation, the National Parks Service, IBM and Salesforce.com.

Thatcher did his undergraduate work at the University of Utah and earned his master’s and doctorate degrees at Florida State University.

Association for Information Systems

The Association for Information Systems is the premier organization for Information Systems faculty in business schools, similar to the Academy of Management, INFORMS or the Production and Operations Management Society. It differs from those organizations in that it serves as the primary platform for supporting the careers of Information Systems faculty and professionals through organizing conferences, supporting journals and sponsoring student groups across 200 countries with active Information Systems programs. More information on AIS can be found at: http://aisnet.org