John Rathje joined Kent State University in March of 2018 and serves as the Vice President for Information Technology and the Chief Information Officer.   John’s leadership experience spans multiple sectors, including higher education, health care and industry.

In his role at Kent State, John provides strategic direction and innovative, customer focused technology solutions that support and advance the University’s mission.  He is responsible for all institutional information technology and digital services that enable and protect Kent State students, faculty, researchers and staff.  

Prior to joining Kent State, John spent 15 years in informational technology roles in higher education. Most recently he served as the Associate Vice Chancellor and CIO at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock (UALR). He also served as the Dean of Technology for Central Michigan University (CMU) College of Medicine and as the Director of Application Development and Support at Central Michigan University. In the private sector, John served as President and CEO of a technology advocacy firm and Co-Founder and President of Diversified Computer Group, Inc.

In support of the vision and priorities set forth in the University’s “A Strategic Roadmap to a Distinctive Kent State”, John serves on the University Level Initiatives committee and the Shared Services Initiative.

John represents the University and the Higher Education Information Technology sector by serving on the following regional and national committees: EDUCAUSE Enterprise Technology Advisory Committee, Higher Ed CIO Advisory Council, Leadership Board for CIOs, Inter University Council for CIOs and the Midwestern Higher Education Compact (MHEC) Technologies Executive Committee.

He has held numerous board positions and memberships over the past 20 years. John is a Leadership Institute Fellow (2014) with the Associate of American Medical Colleges Group on Information Resources (GIR). He served as the co-chair for the New Medical School Special Interest Group (SIG) and on the Program Committee for the 2015 GIR Annual Conference. John served as the Chair of the Higher Education SIG for Americas’ SAP User Group (ASUG) and on the Merit Services Innovations Group.

John holds a Bachelor of Science in Physics and a Master of Science in Computer Science from Central Michigan University.