Richard N. Katz

Richard N. Katz is vice president of EDUCAUSE and founding director of ECAR, the EDUCAUSE Center for Applied Research. For ECAR, he oversees the research program and a network of alliances, partners, research fellows, contractors, and faculty grantees. He is also responsible for developing and delivering much of the association’s educational program through a variety of publications, international conferences, workshops, seminars and management institutes. Katz is also responsible for member and corporate relations, research and development, and outreach. Since joining the association in 1996, he has forged the EDUCAUSE affiliates, an innovative alliance among higher education associations. Members of this alliance include the New England Computing Program (NERCOMP), the Seminars on Academic Computing (SAC), and the College and University Computer Users Association (CUMREC).

Prior to joining the association, Katz held a variety of management and executive positions spanning 14 years at the University of California (UC). In 1994, he staffed the nine-campus UC system’s Improved Management Initiative (IMI). In this role, Katz chaired and coordinated the task groups charged with rethinking UC’s approaches to human resources management, capital programs financing and management, institutional accountability and administrative assessment, and financial systems management. As executive director of Business Planning and Practices, he was responsible for guiding or implementing many of these strategic management initiatives. At UC, Katz was awarded the Gurevich Prize, the Olsten Award, and was the 2nd recipient of that University’s Award for Innovative Management and Leadership.

Katz is a well-known conference keynote speaker and presenter. He is the author, co-author, or editor of more than two dozen books, monographs and articles on a variety of higher education, management, and technology topics. He received a bachelor's degree from the University of Pittsburgh, and an MBA from UCLA.