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Human
Services CIO Fruehwald makes top 100 IT list nationwide
By Lou Baldwin
Special to The CS&T
PHILADELPHIA — When Computerworld, “the Voice of IT Management,”
named Franz Fruehwald among its 100 Premier IT leaders for 2008, the CIO
(Chief Information Officer) for the archdiocesan Secretariat for Human
Services was listed in good company.
Others who were honored included the IT (information technology) officers
and CIOs of such well-known corporations as Xerox, Raytheon, DreamWorks,
Allstate, Six Flags and American Express.
“This year’s class of honorees is characterized by a diversity
that demonstrates the value of unique backgrounds and approaches in building
an outstanding IT organization. Yet, what these individuals have in common
is an expertise born of hard work and an intangible leadership quality,”
said Scot Finnie, editor-in-chief of Computerworld.
“All of us at Catholic Human Services are proud that Franz received
this honor,” said Msgr. Joseph A. Tracy, Secretary for Catholic
Human Services for the Archdiocese.
“He has been an outstanding leader in helping us complete the building
out of our network, of educating our staff of social workers, nurses and
nurse assistants to the use and benefit of technology in their work,”
Msgr. Tracy added.
“As human service providers, our staffs weren’t used to computer
work,” he said. “But over the last seven years, we’ve
gotten to the point where it’s almost impossible to do your work
without access to the network. The ability to generate outcomes data quickly
is tremendously important to our future planning and survival.”
Fruehwald is a member of St. Cecilia Parish, where he teaches PREP classes.
He and his wife, Marian, are the parents of four children — Joseph,
Paul, Kate and Rebecca.
He started with Catholic Social Services in the finance field 19 years
ago and has been working full-time with information technology only for
the past three-and-a-half years. He revels in the challenge.
“It’s constantly changing, and you have to remain current,”
Fruehwald said. “I like to have a lot of balls in the air.
“We support technology, whether its desktop computers or running
the network,” he said. “There are 1,600 desktop computers
out there, and our technology touches virtually every employee.”
Fruehwald is especially proud of the system of touch-screen kiosks put
in place in archdiocesan nursing homes, which assist in every aspect of
patient care. “They have had tremendous impact,” he said.
“We are moving more and more into electronic health records —
documentation in a paperless fashion … and we’ve done a lot
of really good things to help people do their jobs. This brings value
to the table and helps meet the needs of the people we serve.”
Fruehwald and the other honorees will be officially recognized at Computerworld’s
Premier 100 OT Leaders Conference, which runs March 9 through March 11
in Orlando, Fla.
Lou Baldwin is a member of St. Leo parish and a freelance writer.