Welcome New Leadership

Dear Students, Staff, and Faculty, 


As we progress with Project 2024 meetings, Conversations with the President, and campus climate and racial climate surveys, I am impressed that this campus community cares deeply about making CC an even greater and more positively impactful college than it already is. Our future is bright.

Today I am sharing exciting news about two new leaders and Cabinet members who will be integral to the forward-thinking work we will engage in to do what we do better. Both will join CC on April 11.

Vice President and Chief Information Officer Vish Paradkar

Vish Paradkar will rejoin Colorado College, this time as our new vice president and chief information officer. Vish was CC’s associate vice president of IT from 2010 to 2018 and is known for his collaborative leadership approach. 
During that time, he was central to the completion of a multi-year rollout of the student information system, a comprehensive network upgrade, and installation of the college’s first mobile app.

Since 2018 he has been the vice president and chief information officer at Wentworth Institute of Technology in Boston. Vish brings to CC more than 25 years of leadership experience in IT organizations across government, finance, telecom, consulting, and higher education.

At Wentworth his key accomplishments include the rollout of a new learning management system, implementation of multiple IT applications, enhanced security solutions, and various digital collaboration and communications tools including myWentworth, a web/mobile-enabled intranet platform. He established a comprehensive IT governance framework with representation from faculty, staff, students, and university leadership.

“I am very excited for the opportunity to join the Colorado College community in this critical role,” he says. “I am looking forward to rejoining the talented ITS organization and participating in the collective reimagination process to help secure an even better, stronger, and impactful future for this distinguished liberal arts institution.

Vish is a certified project management professional. He earned a bachelor of engineering in electronics degree from the University of Mumbai, India, and a master of business administration from the University of Colorado Colorado Springs.

Vice President for Strategic Communications and Marketing Todd Woodward
Todd Woodward will become CC’s vice president for strategic communications and marketing. Todd will bring to CC experience in university, agency, and corporate communications and marketing, having led corporate and marketing communications for three Fortune 500 companies and the University of Notre Dame.

Todd was most recently vice president of global communications for Herman Miller Group, overseeing corporate, investor, industry, consumer, social impact, issues management, and employee communications across nine family brands. Prior to that, he was chief communications officer at the brokerage company Gallagher, focusing on brand awareness, thought leadership differentiation, corporate social responsibility, content marketing and sales enablement, employee attraction, engagement, and advocacy. He also was vice president of corporate and marketing communications for Amway, focused on global planning, brand positioning, reputation management, and measurement.

Todd was associate vice president of university communications and marketing for six years at University of Notre Dame, where he was responsible for Notre Dame brand academic positioning and execution, academic and research thought leadership, public relations and issues management, employee communications and engagement, campaign communications, the university marketing and communications agency, the website, and Notre Dame Magazine.

I am delighted to work with President Richardson, the leadership team, and the entire Colorado College community to help tell what I believe is one of the most compelling stories in higher education,” he says. “From the Block Plan to the college’s commitment to antiracism, to the dedication of the faculty, and the success of the graduates, Colorado College is defining what it means to be a liberal arts college in today’s world. With so many channels and platforms available to us, we have a great opportunity to tell our unique story in an engaging and meaningful way.

He earned a bachelor of arts degree from University of Notre Dame.

Watch for opportunities to meet and welcome Vish and Todd to CC in coming weeks.

Thanks so much to the search teams and the many campus community members who met with these candidates, engaged in important conversations, and shared their input. Your contributions and those of these new leaders will set us on course to achieve so much in our future. 

I am grateful for Katharina Groves and Tulio Wolford, interim co-vice presidents of ITS, for their leadership of the division after the loss of our dear friend Vice President and CIO Brian Young, who passed away last summer. They both contributed so much to the Cabinet’s strategic thinking and provided steady guidance to their team as it adapted to greater technology needs brought on by online learning and work due to the pandemic.

Thanks to Jane Turnis, who has led our Communications team for 13 years, through brand strategy; new institutional and athletics logos; a collegewide communications plan; a wayfinding system; web redesigns; alumni magazine redesigns; the addition of video, photography, and internal communications; a new partnership for the college’s NPR member radio station KRCC; and much more. I’m thrilled that Jane now will bring her talents to the President’s Office as associate vice president for executive communications.

We will gather soon to celebrate Jane, Katharina, and Tulio.

Sincerely,
 

L. Song Richardson

President

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