We all know how IT can be used to increase productivity, profits and performance. CIOs who have been busy helping businesses and non-profits excel over the years through the use of IT can now turn their capabilities towards helping people in need. A two-year old, non-profit organization, CIOs Without Borders , started by CIO Atefeh Riazi, is dedicated to using technology to make medical knowledge available to communities in which people routinely suffer from preventable (or easily curable) diseases.

 

Riazi, currently CIO of the New York City Housing Authority, was formerly the global CIO of Ogilvy & Mather. In her role there she traveled the world extensively and was often disheartened by the lack of healthcare and education she witnessed first-hand. After she left O&M she launched CIOs Without Borders, in the hopes that the IT community would get involved in IT philanthropy just as the medical profession has done by offering their services globally through Doctors Without Borders.