Cris Downey , Director of Technology of Rotary International , talks tech and progress at the largest philanthropic grassroots organisation in the world
ROTARY INTERNATIONAL
Cris Downey , Director of Technology of Rotary International , talks tech and progress at the largest philanthropic grassroots organisation in the world
Cris Downey is the Director of technology services at Rotary International , the oldest and potentially largest , most farreaching grassroots service organisation in the world . He joined Rotary in November of 2019 , after spending 18 years working in healthcare and pharma in the northern suburbs of Chicago .
“ After having various roles and working on several projects up there , I was looking for a change ,” he says . “ I wanted to move out of the corporate world and be able to give back , to do something more as part of the community .”
He then spoke to the chief information officer ( CIO ) of Rotary at the time , the infrastructure of which was severely outdated and highly unstable . The then-CIO was looking for someone to come in and partner with him . “ He was very applicationfocused ,” says Downey . “ He wanted someone to help modernise and transform Rotary ' s infrastructure and core technologies .”
Downey saw this as “ an opportunity ” – as he puts it – “ to be able to help transform an organisation that is itself a transformative organisation on the world stage ”.
“ You don ' t get too many opportunities like that in your life and career , so I went for it . We ' ve since made a lot of progress and have done a lot of great work , especially in the last two and a half years .”
252 July 2022