Charles (Chuck) Christian is one of those rare seasoned executives who balances unprecedented experience with an unbridled passion for tomorrow. The VP of Technology and first CTO of Franciscan Alliance for the past 3 years, Chuck is responsible for all infrastructure including the network used by the dozen hospital campuses; 400+ locations and physician practices/imaging centers/lab facilities; and the multiple joint ventures and new sports facility. He owns the cloud strategy and desktop, all support functions, patient communication portals and the conversion to the new VOIP, and oversees a team of 156 professionals all operating to "make technology invisible". Chuck says his job is to "remove barriers so others can be successful". A radiology technician by education, Chuck embraced the technology backbone of that field, purchasing the first CT scanner and writing code for early modeling. That taste of technology in healthcare led him to management/implementation roles at Baxter Travenol, and a 24 year run up to CIO at Good Samaritan Hospital. He was VP, CTO of St. Francis Hospital and VP Technology for the Indiana Health Information Exchange prior to joining Franciscan. Chuck espouses “Making an Impact” and recognizes those who do. Similarly, others have recognized him with numerous awards. Author of the Irreverent-CIO Healthcare blog, frequent contributor to Modern Healthcare and co-author of "Make IT Known: Marketing Strategies and Case Studies in the Healthcare Environment", Chuck is a Life Fellow/Charter Member of CHIME (College of Healthcare Information Management Executives), as well as a Life Fellow/Past Chair of the Board of HIMSS (Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society). He is credentialed as a Certified Healthcare CIO, has been on the Executive Advisory Board of Advance for Health Information Executives, and was appointed by Indiana's Governor to the BOD of Indiana Health Informatics and the Indiana Healthcare Information Technology BOD.