Milestones

Featured (l-r):  Don Taylor, Don Lee, Tim Talbot, Liz Young, Jim Clements, Marion Maullauer, and David Powell. 

Notable – The Forum grew quickly to over 30 members including many of the largest and most prestigious companies in the area (McCormick, Black & Decker, Perdue Farms, PHH Arval, and Textron Systems (formerly AAI Corporation).

Early 2004 – Walmart CIO, Linda Dillman, presented to a standing-room only crowd discussing Walmart’s push for RFID on all products.  It was extremely well attended, and jump started the Forum. 

2004 – Liz Young was appointed as Executive Director. She provided structure and discipline to the Forum.

2004 – Gartner Group joined and committed to annual updates for the Forum on the latest trends and priorities that CIOs from member companies should be aware of and informed about. 

2006 – Extending its partnership with Towson University (TU), the Forum begins offering scholarships to TU students who embody the future of IT professionals, equipped with the knowledge and skills to impact the trajectory of the technology industry.  By its twentieth anniversary, the Forum had provided over 150 scholarships and over $650,000 in total to Towson University students.

2009 – Don Lee, CIO at Stanley Black & Deckers was appointed Executive Director. 

2010 – Marc Andonian, Vice President and Executive Partner from the Gartner Group first presents at the Forum and continued to present annually for 15 years in a row. Marc is currently an Emeritus Member.

2013 – Security Networking Group (SNG) was formed as a spin-off group to the Forum and included Security officers and admins of the CIO members. The SNG is guided by CISOs and offers more detailed drill-down on cybersecurity issues and solutions.

September 2020 – The Forum continues through the COVID pandemic with a “virtual” meeting at McCormick. The decision is made to continue with virtual meetings through the COVID shutdown following national guidelines at that time, and then go to hybrid meetings.

September 2021 – The Forum kickoff its year at Erickson Senior Living and has continued to kickoff each year at Erickson thereafter. The Erickson hosted meetings, and member hosted meetings in general have proved to be very valuable and popular.

December 2021 – The Forum began meeting at The Center Club and highlighting Anirban Basu as its speaker to begin each new year. This beginning of the new year checkpoint on the economic trends and directions helps our members in planning and staying current.

January 2022 – The Forum spun off from Towson University Foundation and became a separate 501(C)6 entity to provide greater flexibility for how it could operate.

2023-2024 – The Forum starts its Twentieth Anniversary Year by rebranding and emphasizing the return to more in-person and “roundtable” meetings. It also focuses on its vendor members and improving their representation on its Board.

2024 – The Forum celebrates its Twentieth Anniversary at the Annapolis Yacht Club.

Featured (l-r) Hans Keller, Bill Medley, Regina Tillery, Brian Seymour, Daraius Irani and Don Lee

Keys to the Forum’s success

• Provides a framework and forum for sharing ideas among its members freely and in confidence
• Promotes professional growth through meetings and expert speakers on current and cogent topics
• Assures membership with the right mix of companies and vendors with peer-to-peer interests and relationships
• Creates an environment and formal and informal venues for networking and openly sharing problems, issues, ideas and solutions
• Between members and with outside speakers seeks to find solutions to common business problems and to share best practices
• Strives to stay abreast of trends and directions that will impact its member companies and organizations
• Provides scholarships and opportunities for career development in STEM areas and in the IT profession