Dr. Raoul J. Freeman
Raoul J. Freeman has been in the information systems field for most of his professional
career. His range of professional experience spans private industry, the public sector and
academia. The positions he has held include Chief Information Officer of a large school
district, Chief Executive Officer of a start-up computer software firm, and Professor and
Department Chair of a computer information systems program at a major university. He
has managed large data centers and multi-million dollar systems development efforts.
Furthermore, he has engaged in notable public service as Chairman of the Information
Systems Commission of Los Angeles County. He obtained his Ph.D. from M.I.T. and
has compiled an outstanding publications record of over 40 journal articles and book
chapters. Throughout his career, his trademark has been to make state-of-the-art
technological concepts understandable and to apply them in a cost-effective manner.
Some Recent External Activity
Chairman, Los Angeles County Information Systems Commission (1994- ). This ten
member group (previously known as DPTAC) advises the Los Angeles County Board of
Supervisors regarding the management and future of the County's information technology
activities, which have an annual budget of more than 600 million dollars. Areas of
concern for this Committee have been the development of a CIO function for the County,
telecommunications network procurement, oversight on major systems development
projects, Y2K preparedness, professional education, consolidation of data centers,
Internet operations, revenue producing IT activity, data security, standards development,
outsourcing and long range planning.
Chairman of the Los Angeles Mayor's Education Task Force on Y2K.
Participant in the CSU Chancellor's Task Force on Planning the Telecommunications and
Computer Infrastructure of the University for the Next 20 Years.
Professional Highlights
Professor and Chair, Information Systems, CSUDH (1984- )
Responsible for the administration of the Department of Computer Information Systems.
Active in curriculum development and in bringing the latest technology to the classroom.
Fields of specialization include systems analysis and development, computer assisted
software engineering, enterprise resource planning, instructional technology, project
management and failure causes of large systems. Recipient of grants and performance
awards. For example, recently received a grant of $90,000 to establish an intelligent
classroom which will be used to push the state of the art in information systems
instruction. In the process of bringing multi-million dollar software to the Campus for
use in teaching ERP. Author of numerous professional papers in professional journals,
books and proceedings. Presenter at major professional conferences and symposia.
Reviewer for publishers such as Irwin/McGraw Hill and John Wiley. Service on major
committees such as the University Budget Committee. Responsible for bringing a CISCO
Academy to the Campus and developer of an Internship program for students. Also
responsible for an industrial outreach activity among major firms. Consultant in
information systems.
Assistant Superintendent, Los Angeles Unified School District (1973-1984)
My duties were those of the Chief Information Officer of one of the largest school
districts in the nation. Managed a 200 person organization responsible for all academic
and administrative computing, systems development, telecommunications, major IBM
and Unisys data centers, and the first extensive distributed network for a major school
district. Systems applications included payroll, personnel, budget, accounting, inventory,
transportation, computer assisted instruction, and school administrative systems which
included mark reporting, attendance accounting, student registration, student information,
cumulative records, etc. Also responsible for major procurements of computer hardware
and software, contract oversight, outsourcing, technology assessment and long range
planning.
President and Founder, Systems Applications Inc.
Chief Executive Officer of a start-up software systems development firm. Primary areas
of activity of the firm was in the areas of specialized software development for
telecommunications, environmental analyis, and corporate management. Guided the
growth of the firm to a multi-million dollar level and then engineered its acquisition by a
larger entity.
Manager Special Projects, General Electric Company
Supervised and designed the development and application of computerized techniques to
assist top management of one of the largest corporations in the world in the areas of fiscal
control, capital budgeting, economic forecasting and profit planning.
Education, Publications and Other
Ph.D. - M.I.T.
B.A. - Brooklyn College
Author of forty three publications including refereed journal articles, chapters in books,
proceedings, etc. Editor of two proceedings.
Member of major professional organizations such as ACM, SIM, INFORMS, and ISTE.