Board of Advisors

To ensure relevance, accuracy and continued best practices, the IT Executives Council is guided by the talented and experienced professionals of our Board of Advisors below. The IT Executives Board of Advisors supports program and resource planning, and strives to represent our community of CIOs, CISOs, CTOs, and other IT professionals.

Do you have questions or suggestions for the Board? Please use the IT Executives Council contact form.

Mel Heckman

Advisor

Mel Heckman is an accomplished technology executive with nearly 30 years experience in ERP, IT infrastructure, custom development, and Business Intelligence across a wide range of industries. His many CIO/CTO and technology roles span mid-market to Fortune 500 corporations. Mel’s long consulting career focused on CIO advisory and technology implementation for West Monroe Partners, Sikich, Ernst & Young, and others. 

Mel earned an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and a Bachelor of Science, Operations Management and Information Systems from Northern Illinois University.

Robert Swanson

Advisor

Robert Swanson is President of VAST, a national IT services and infrastructure management firm based in Downers Grove, IL. Bob joined VAST in 2003 after starting his career in the Oil and Gas industry. He has held various positions in both sales and technical services. As President, Bob manages all company day-to-day operations, including Technical Services Delivery, Sales, Marketing, and Field Operations.

Bob received a Bachelor’s Degree in Supply Chain Management from Michigan State University. He resides in Naperville, IL with his wife Lindsay and their two children.

Joe Chivini

Advisor

Joe Chivini brings a broad range of senior-level business and IT experience, having decades of experience in various executive-level roles across many industries, he managed account relationships and alliances with firms ranging from small start-ups to Fortune 500 organizations. Joe’s extensive consulting career includes Analytics, Business Intelligence, Automation, AI and cloud-based solutions .

Joe earned an Executive Education Program degree from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, and a Marketing degree from Loyola University. He is also very active in the tech start-up community, and often mentors developers here in Chicago that are working on new products out of 1871, mHUB, The Hatchery and various PE/VC firms.