Information Technology Services, the central hub that coordinates Yale’s technological operations, underwent a change in leadership earlier this month when Len Peters, Yale’s chief information officer and associate vice president, announced his departure.

Peters officially left Yale on Sept. 16 to take a comparable position at New York University, he wrote in an email to ITS staff on Aug. 30. At NYU, Peters will serve as vice president and chief information officer starting Oct. 3.

Yale has not yet found a replacement for Peters, but Senior Vice President for Operations Jack Callahan Jr. ’80 will serve as the interim CIO while Yale conducts a national search.

This shift in senior management comes amid broader changes to University governance including the creation of a new vice president for operations position.

“Len was a visionary leader that challenged ITS to focus on exceeding the expectations from the Yale community for technology,” said ITS spokesperson Susan West.

Under his five-year tenure, West said ITS developed into more than just a campus technology provider, expanding its community outreach and collaborating across disciplines. For example, under Peters’ tenure, ITS established the Center for Research Computing, which collaborates with Yale’s science departments and research laboratories to support the study of computer science.

ITS also helped start an annual Yale Technology Summit, now in its third year, as well as an award-winning technology jobs and internships program that works with New Haven youth and adults.

Peters’ departure coincided with the release of the ITS Annual Report, which details many of the other initiatives created during Peters’ tenure. His colleagues described him as an innovative thinker whose absence will be felt within the ITS department.

According to West, Peters was a leader “whose passion for technology and its impact on higher education was truly inspirational.”

Two collaborative projects in the annual report highlight Peters’ innovative spirit. This past year, ITS helped stitch together digitized images of large Tibetan murals and installed video cameras at the Brady Squash Center in Payne Whitney Gymnasium for high-definition streaming and recording. The report said projects like these are unique and differ from the kinds of campus projects on which ITS usually works.

West said Peters’ replacement must, like Peters, be an experienced and highly collaborative leader with “a track record of delivering top-notch information technology services and capabilities across complex, diverse organizations.”

Peters studied technology management at Columbia University, where he wrote his thesis on cloud computing. Prior to coming to Yale, Peters held IT leadership positions at Merrill Lynch, General Electric and Columbia Business School. Peters headed Columbia’s IT department for five years before taking over Yale ITS in fall 2011.

MADDIE BENDER