Tech Director, Alum Get CIO of the Year Nods

As director of technology at Crossroads, Mark Govatos plays a vital role in helping the School’s technical operations run smoothly. It’s no surprise that he recently was nominated for the Los Angeles Business Journal’s CIOs of the Year Award, celebrating IT inventiveness and technological achievements.

 

Throughout his 30-year career with Crossroads, Mark has served as a math instructor, the Mathematics Department chair and head of the Computer Science division before moving into IT administration. He has led the Information Services Department since 2011.

 

Reflecting on his time at Crossroads, Mark said his greatest accomplishments have been getting the W. M. Keck Grant with Joe Wise in 1996-97 and helping build the School’s first network with Joe and Eugene Zarakovsky ’97.

 

“Many people may not remember this, but there was a time when Crossroads did not have any networked computers or email,” Mark said. “These things started in large part because of the work that Joe and the Keck Math Science Institute did back in the 1990s. I was proud to be a part of it.”

 

Jason Lidow ’03 was also named a finalist for the CIOs of the Year Award. He’s the president and founder of the DigiTrust Group, which provides security services to middle-market companies in the retail, health care, education, technology, finance, manufacturing and financial industries.

 

Some of Jason’s clients include Crown Media Family Networks, True Religion Brand Jeans, Urth Caffé and Cast & Crew Entertainment Services.