Next year, Information Technology Services will have a new director.

Len Peters, Chief Information Officer at Columbia Business School, will replace Philip Long as ITS Director and Chief Information Officer and Associate Vice President to the University, Provost Peter Salovey and Shauna King, vice president for finance and business operations, announced in an email today. Long will step down after 40 years of service to Yale.

“Our goal is to stand among the very best research universities in the IT world,” Salovey and King said in the email. “Len will lead the University’s ITS staff and manage the University’s complex systems and infrastructure with the high level of reliability required of a world-class research university.”

Peters earned his MS in technology management from Columbia, where he wrote his thesis in cloud computing, and completed the Senior Executive Program at Columbia Business School. He has held IT leadership positions in companies including Merril Lynch, General Electric, Berkshire Hathaway and Cendant before taking his position as director of Columbia’s ITS in 2006.

Under his leadership at Columbia Business School, student satisfaction with ITS went from a 2.8 to a 4.2 on a five point scale, Salovey and King said in the email.

The email added that after Peters arrives the University will launch a search for a Deputy CIO for Academic IT, “to complement the strong leadership team already in place.”

Peters lives in Newtown, CT with his wife, Fran and daughter, Emily, a high school sophomore.

Correction: May 7, 2011

An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that Peters was CIO for all of Columbia University, he is in fact the CIO for the Business School. It also did not include that Shauna King, vice president for finance and business operations, sent the announcement along with Provost Peter Salovey.