When you have a lot to say, it can be difficult to squeeze everything into a condensed timeframe. Considering this, much credit is owed to John Lutz, who took his normally three-hour long speech on the current state of the Internet and the future of how it will continue to change how we communicate, and delivered a 15-minute version of it at our final CBL breakfast meeting of 2018.
As has become the norm this year, the room was packed at the Cathedral of the Incarnation’s Fleming Center. Lutz, the Vice Chancellor of IT at Vanderbilt University, brought many new faces with him, as dozens of his colleagues attended to show their support for the unflappable man with a wildly distinguished tech career. As vice chancellor, Lutz is the senior technology leader for the university and he is responsible for the IT infrastructure and application management across all of Vanderbilt’s academic and administrative groups. John is also currently serving as Executive IT Consultant for Vanderbilt University Medical Center. He joined Vanderbilt in April 2013 after serving as president of IBM Canada, where he was responsible for setting the strategic direction and overseeing the day-to-day operations of the IBM organization throughout Canada.
Lutz spoke on Thursday morning of many topics that affect our lives – as well as those of our children and parents – that exist nowadays because of the Internet. Social media, for example, has revolutionized how we stay in touch and share information, yet it has also provided a glimpse into the personal lives of all who wish to disclose details about themselves. This powerful tool can be used for both good or evil, and caution must be implored. The same goes for phishing emails, which Lutz pointed out have gotten more and more deceptive in how they present themselves. Nowadays, it’s not hard for a potential hacker to send an email that masquerades as a personal note from a friend or colleague.
It wasn’t all scary stuff, however; Lutz also spoke of his background and of being Catholic in the tech world. A native of southern Ohio, Lutz is a graduate of Ironton St. Joseph Catholic High School and holds an A.B., magna cum laude, in computer science and linguistics from Harvard. When he and CBL President Steve Horvath met a few years ago, it wasn’t until later that they realized they did not only share a love of tech and I.T., but that they were both Catholic. As Horvath humorously noted when introducing Lutz, “it’s not really common to ask someone ‘Hey, are you Catholic?’ when meeting them.”
Without question, many attendance were wishing when Lutz wrapped up his 15-minute “power speech” that they got to hear the three-hour version. An engaging man speaking with such confidence on fascinating topics is certainly an enjoyable way to learn new information. While we only got the cliff notes version, it’s evident that we ended 2018 with a bang thanks to Mr. John Lutz!
