John Laughlin

About John Laughlin

As a Director of Information Technology, I play a pivotal role in shaping the organization’s infrastructure, modernizing platforms, and providing scalable solutions. I also lead cross-functional teams in delivering complex IT projects and initiatives on time and within budget. I support the organization by providing strategic leadership and modernization strategies aligned with organizational goals. I engage and lead interactions with executive-level client stakeholders and guide technology decisions, drawing on my technical expertise in processes and tools that support business needs.I leverage strong business acumen and hands-on technical expertise to adeptly shift from tactical issues to strategic matters. I am experienced in Fortune 500 environments, representing the Financial, Energy, and Technology sectors, and also have experience across the pharmaceutical, healthcare, and marketing industries. As a Program Manager, I have overseen multiple IT projects and programs, fostering team excellence and accountability. I actively seek engagement with senior leadership and stakeholders so the organization is on the same page regarding technology strategies and investments. My proven ability to manage OPEX and CAPEX budgets and provide continuous improvement to optimize services and reduce operating costs. I ensure that innovation, scale, and security are at the forefront of the culture. I always maintain continuous awareness of technology trends and IT/ITIL best practices and communicate recommendations that align with organizational goals.

Experience

1. Director Datacenter Technology Planning

   TIAA

   Jun 2023 — Present · Broomfield, CO, US

   As Director of Data Center Technology Planning at TIAA, I lead long range strategy, capacity forecasting, and lifecycle management for our Broomfield and Charlotte data centers and a global colocation footprint across North America, Europe, and Asia. My work centers on delivering resilient, cost effective, and future ready infrastructure through disciplined planning, strong cross functional alignment, and data driven decision making.I partner closely with Architecture, Engineering, Infrastructure Operations, and Facilities to optimize on premise environments and modernize aging platforms. I also leverage TIAA’s MyGAIT generative AI platform to automate capacity planning, improve forecasting accuracy, and identify opportunities to enhance hardware lifecycle management, PUE performance, and cooling efficiency.A major part of my impact has been transforming several discrete data center services and functions into a unified, cohesive, and high performing service organization—improving execution quality, reducing operational friction, and strengthening accountability across the enterprise.Key Contributions• Unified discrete data center services into an integrated, high performing organization.• Built TIAA’s first end to end hosting dependency mapping across physical infrastructure and 1,974 on premise applications.• Delivered a 10 year Hybrid Hosting Strategy guiding cloud migration, on premise investment, and long term TCO optimization.• Developed a five year NPV based ROI model comparing on premise and cloud economics for multimillion dollar decisions.• Evaluated modernization initiatives—including Oracle Insurance Policy Administration and Kubernetes—assessing cloud migration feasibility for 1,050 databases and ~350 applications.• Used MyGAIT AI to generate regular capacity planning insights and identify efficiency improvements across asset lifecycle, PUE, and cooling.

Education

• University of Denver - Daniels College of Business

  Executive Master of Business Administration (MBA)

• Jefferson Health

  Master of Science (M.S.), Medical Biochemistry

• Ursinus College

  Bachelor of Science (B.S.), Biology

Skills

• Storage
• Troubleshooting
• IT Service Management
• Change Management
• Cross-Functional Team Leadership
• Project Planning
• Infrastructure
• Documentation
• Virtualization
• Integration
• Project Portfolio Management
• Disaster Recovery
• Team Building
• Management
• Leadership
• Network Administration
• Project Management
• Budgeting
• System Administration
• Sharepoint
• Business Process
• Forecasting
• Software Documentation
• Sdlc
• Cloud Computing
• Information Technology
• System Deployment
• Itil
• Telecommunications
• Unix
• Windows Server
• Cost Management
• Service Delivery
• Technical Support
• Business Analysis
• IT Operations
• Business Continuity
• Networking
• Vendor Management
• Budgets