July 20, 1999
John H. Louis will assume his new position on Sept. 7, Marilu Goodyear, vice chancellor for information services at KU, announced today. "John's vast technical experience combined with his proven abilities to collaborate with diverse constituencies make him the outstanding choice to lead NTS into the 21st century," Goodyear said.
As NTS director, Louis will oversee the management of a complex network infrastructure that provides voice, data and video services to the university. He will supervise 45 employees and manage a $7 million budget.
Louis has been the executive director for Upper Great Lakes Educational Technologies Inc. UGLETI is a consortium of school districts, colleges and universities, hospitals, libraries and Native American tribes in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. Earlier he was manager of telecommunications at Michigan Technological University, Houghton, from 1989 to 1996.
"The technical expertise that John brings to KU will make an important contribution to management of our telecommunications system, which includes 11,000 data connections and capacity for 15,000 voice lines," said Richard McKinney, assistant vice chancellor for information services.
Louis has indicated that he was drawn to KU for three reasons: 1) KU is an institution that recognizes the importance of information technology to its mission; 2) the prime focus of the KU information technology department is service to its constituency; and 3) the staff at NTS is acclaimed for its quality.
"It's an honor to have been selected," Louis said. "I'm very excited to become a member of such a dynamic and forward-looking IT team."
Louis earned a bachelor of science in electrical engineering degree in 1979 from Michigan Technological University. He majored in nuclear power engineering.
Contact: Todd Cohen, University Relations, (785) 864-8858 or tcohen@ukans.edu.