Gary Flowers is the chief information officer at Year Up, the leading workforce development nonprofit. He is in charge of the organization’s technology and enterprise operations in his current position, which comprises the external customer-facing technologies required to support Year Up’s learning activities and job placement for Opportunity Divide and businesses. Year Up is committed to closing the Opportunity Divide by helping talented and motivated young people, aged 18 to 28, gain the skills, experiences, and support they need to reach their potential.
Gary is in charge of Year Up’s Enterprise Technology plan as CIO. The roadmap directs the company’s assistance to external constituents, including donors, volunteers, corporate partners, and students, among others. Gary adds strong global digital knowledge to Year Up’s Audit Technology Committee, with an emphasis on process innovation through technology enablement. His expertise in a unique blend of CIO level experience in Online Education and Workforce Management has been honed over many years, making him a key member of the Year Up ecosystem.
Prior to his present position, Gary was the CIO of Zero Chaos, a worldwide contingent workforce management firm, and Bisk, an online education program management company for top-tier private colleges in the United States. Gary has a B.S. in Management and Information Systems from Florida State University and an Executive MBA from Tulane University. He is on the board of a number of non-profit organizations, and is a well-known speaker at industry events.
Below are highlights of the interview:
Why did you choose IT to specialize in?
I chose IT because of my love for technology and its ability to be used to solve problems.
Tell us more about Year Up.
Year Up is focused on closing the Opportunity Divide by providing two things: access and impact for disadvantaged youth while meeting the talent needs of companies.
- ACCESS
- Giving Opportunity Youth access to Fortune 1000 jobs/careers and educational opportunities without the debt associated with them.
- Giving companies and other organizations access to a valuable talent pool they have historically overlooked.
- IMPACT
- Providing a runway to life-changing careers that start out with a liveable wage.
- Corporations have an impact on society by helping close the Opportunity Divide.
What are your responsibilities as Chief Information Officer of the company?
As the CIO of Year Up, I am in charge of using technology to scale our growth and impact — allowing us to serve more young adults effectively and efficiently. We always keep security in mind as we use data to make decisions and allow us to be an agile business.
How do you ensure that your organization has a culture of integrity and innovation?
We embed cross-functional decision making into everything we do to ensure that we innovate to support Year Up’s mission – and do not do technology for technology’s sake.
What are the major improvements companies have made in their business operations since the pandemic?
Ensure technology has a seat at the table. Also, ensure hybrid learning is more of a reality for internal and external constituents.
What have you failed at and how do you overcome challenges?
Early in my executive career, I failed at navigating the peer relationships to ensure technology was viewed as a business partner and not just as a tool to be used when called upon. I overcome challenges by breaking down large problems into consumable bites and making smaller improvements to gain trust and build up to transformational change.
Kindly describe how you will specifically know what success looks like for you.
Success for me at Year Up looks like an organization that can 10x the impact that we currently have, which is already industry leading. That impact potential can be realized through technology innovation and data-driven decision making.
What advice would you give to the next generation of IT business leaders?
The next generation of IT leaders needs to think business outcomes first and then about how technology can enable those outcomes. Partner with your counterparts and understand their pain points, then move to relieve or solve them. That is where true partnership begins. Lastly, technology can be useful in every part of business, so there isn’t a table or place you cannot bring value.
What are your future plans to sustain the company’s and your success?
My future plan is to execute on the three-year tech roadmap that we have put together:
- Foundation Innovation
- Innovation Transformation
- Transformation Acceleration
My Success will be the result of spreading the mission of Year Up and applying technology to enable Year Up to fulfill its utmost potential in terms of reach and impact. I also look to get involved in other boards and working with leadership to help those organization’s achieve their goals.
