Frank Wander

Frank Wander was born in Mount Kisco, New York, to hard working, loving parents who provided a wonderful home in a fun suburban neighborhood crowded with kids his age. His formative years taught him a strong work ethic, and the value of caring about other people and the environment. This led him to get a Bachelor of Science degree in Biology, feeding a passionate interest in living things, especially social organisms like ants and bees that live in complex colonies where they dedicate themselves to cooperative interaction. Their societies rely on prosocial behaviors, which support group outcomes, in stark contrast to the self-serving and corrosive behaviors soooo prevalent in the western world. You would never find bees obsessed with selfies, even if they could take them.

Frank was fortunate to land a job right out of college as a computer programmer trainee at Equitable Life Insurance Company in New York City. This provided a strong foundation for a rewarding career in an industry that was just beginning decades of explosive and transformational growth. Serendipitously, Wander had a knack for the technology business - it is often better to be lucky than good ☺ - and went on to successfully lead many turnaround transformations of failed, or failing, IT projects and divisions across companies.

After his third turnaround, he realized the failures had a consistent root cause: Corporate cultures where the leaders knew everything about products, processes and technology, but nothing about the human needs that underpin knowledge worker engagement and productivity. This blind spot led him to write Transforming IT Culture, a book that uses our largest knowledge worker profession, IT, as a lens through we can see the productive power of caring about one another, and getting the human side of business right. This book is the missing Operators Manual for the Human Infrastructure!

Frank Wander was a CIO (Chief Information Officer) at three different companies, and the founder of PeopleProductive, LLC, a company that helps customers build organizational effectiveness by understanding and using the human factors that underpin the productivity of the modern workforce. Wander is a sought after speaker and panelist at industry events, who connects with his audience by sharing meaningful stories, and proven strategies for creating high performance. He has given the keynote address at many technology industry events, and has appeared on Business Insider, internet radio, and in the Wall Street Journal.