With nearly 20 years of successes as an IT leader and senior consultant, Robert Gusnowski has dedicated his professional career to ensuring that organizations are served by their technology infrastructure, and not encumbered by it. For Gusnowski, this means taking the time to really understand the processes, priorities, people and goals that the technology is meant to support, and ensuring that every IT investment is strategically driven by business needs. It also means putting in place the governance structures, quality controls, business plans and KPI tools to ensure that evolving technology keeps pace with evolving demands.

Robert started his IT career as an independent consultant, and grew his first company, R & D Computer Consulting, from a part-time interest into a full-time operation whose clients included the Grande Yellowhead Regional School Division in west central Alberta. With his background as an educator, Gusnowski has a very pragmatic understanding of how technology can be leveraged to support student learning, and recognizes that chronic budget pressures meant that schools need to be creative in the way they approached their IT investments. After 2 years helping the Grande Yellowhead school division source and procure cost-effective hardware and software, Robert was invited to join the division’s IT/Technology team as Grande Yellowhead embarked on an ambitious venture as the first educational division in Alberta to extend WAN to all schools, using the province’s AGNPAC frame relay network. The initiative was a success, and cemented Robert’s reputation as an IT expert who could bridge the languages of technology, business, and the classroom.
     
In 1998, Buffalo Trail Public Schools retained Robert Gusnowski as their IT Director, with the mandate to operationalize a new division-wide strategic IT plan. Up to this point, the school district had a very fragmented approach to technology, and there were vast disparities in student access to computers. Robert spent the next three years completely overhauling the district’s approach to technology. Not only did he replace outdated equipment, but by centralizing IT planning and administration, the division was able to get much better return on its IT investments.

By 2005, Gusnowski had achieved a ratio of one computer for every student across the region. The district enjoyed high speed wireless broadband connectivity at every school, and had a low cost email solution for all 8,000+ students, teachers and administrative staff. By the end of 2005, a state-of-the-art videoconferencing system was in place to support distance education objectives. And best practices for data security, help desk operations, and IT performance management had been instituted, based on ISTE standards for technology in education. Gusnowski was able to create this transformation on an annual budget of $1.3M per year, and helped to position Buffalo Trails as a benchmark for technology leadership in the province of Alberta.

Gusnowski launched Alberta IT Management Services Ltd. in December 2007, where he is the Principal Consultant.  Corporations such as Calgary Board of Education, Lethbridge School District No. 51, TAQA North Oil & Gas, TriCon Technical Services and Agrium Field Services have retained Robert’s services to help them make sound business decisions about their IT infrastructure, deploy new networking technology, and ensure that existing systems operate at peak performance. Among his contributions over the past two years, Gusnowski led the design and deployment of a multi-million dollar Wide Area Network that used microwave technology, locally available broadband and Alberta’s Supernet to provide high-availability high speed internet to 28 TAQA oil & gas properties from Northern BC to southern Saskatchewan.

A passionate believer in life long learning, Robert has made continuous professional development a high priority.
In addition to holding multiple technical certifications from Microsoft, Cisco and Novell, he is an accredited Project Management Professional and a Certified Information Systems Security Professional. His next goal is to complete a Masters of Business Administration in Leadership and Technology.

Gusnowski’s professional ethos can be summed as follows: Congruency between what you say and what you do. He has earned a respected reputation among his clients and peers as a leader who combines an exceptional level of technical expertise with unwavering integrity, professionalism, and commitment to finding the right solution to the right problem, for the right price.