James Ritchey – President/Co-Founder, Delta Initiative

Jim’s twenty years in the technology industry give him a unique understanding of the relationship between technology and business. He possesses a keen sense of productivity, helping companies focus on managing and improving operations. His broad industry experience includes wholesale distribution and transportation, software and information technology, as well as higher education within colleges and universities.

Jim served as interim CIO of Colorado Community College System (CCCS), where he developed its Student System project. Once it was underway and under control, Jim served on the selection committee to find a permanent CIO for the system.

Next, Jim served as interim CIO at DeVry Inc. where he helped reinvigorate DeVry’s technology team, then lead a search for its permanent CIO.

Jim served as the vice president of technology and operations, then president and COO, of Indeliq, the leading provider of performance simulation technology. He led the effort to integrate Indeliq into the Accenture Learning division. He spearheaded the technology effort to design the SPS product, a software package used to create and run performance simulations. His responsibilities included overseeing Internet, Intranet, and Web-related operations, and his hands-on approach led to company profitability after two straight years of losses.

As vice president of technology at Grainger Internet Commerce, Jim was responsible for all technical areas, including architecture, application development, deployment, operations, security and the network for two award-winning websites, Grainger.com and OrderZone.com.During his tenure, sales experienced an annual growth rate of more than 400 percent.

Philip D. Hill - Executive Vice President, Delta Initiative

Phil is a consultant, coach and speaker specializing in bridging the gap between strategy and operations.  Throughout his career, he has combined his leadership, organizational and technical skills to successfully execute key IT projects for the US Air Force, HBO Systems, Inc and several software development companies.

Phil has a proven track record of establishing successful, effective IT visions and management processes for colleges and universities. The recent merger of Delta Initiative and HBO Systems will make Phil’s approach available to a wider audience.

In his roles, Phil helps colleges and universities get institution-wide support for strategic IT implementation. As part of Delta Initiative, he has assisted Colorado Community College System with generation of a system-wide RFP. Other clients have included the University of Iowa; DeVry University; University of California, Los Angeles; and California State University as well as several software development companies, the state of Maine, and multiple higher education institutions.

Joachim Peters, CISM/Co-Founder/Vice President

Joachim Peters brings a strong blend of team leadership, business acumen and technical expertise to Delta Initiative. With 20 years of experience in system and network engineering and administration, Joachim has a strong knowledge of business systems and processes. In addition to leading development and infrastructure departments as interim manager, Joachim implemented security frameworks, defined business continuity requirements and established IT controls and measurements for various companies. Before joining Delta Initiative, Joachim was manager of infrastructure for Indeliq, managing all aspects of its eLearning infrastructure environment from design to disaster recovery planning. He also prepared office space for the organization and managed a team of technical experts.

As site administrator for Works.com, Joachim created frameworks for business continuity, disaster recovery and security. As site administrator and senior network administrator for Grainger, he led the re-organization of Internet commerce and designed and renovated its data center space, architected and supported secure and scalable hardware and software environments; and developed and maintained security and disaster recovery policies. As systems manager for Grainger, he was responsible for replacing a mainframe and paper-based process with a client/server based imaging system.

Jennifer Spahn, Co-Founder/Vice President

As a founder of Delta Initiative, Ms. Spahn brings more than 15 years of experience understanding business processes, program management, methodologies, and team building. Jennifer has assisted with the implementation of Project Management best practices at a variety of customers including major financial services, distribution, and higher education organizations.

Jennifer has assisted several universities with the selection of an LMS and has also assisted Colorado Community College System with the generation of a system-wide RFP. She has also assisted the California State University system with LMS-related services and the development of an Academic Technology baseline. Jennifer has assisted Louisiana Community and Technical College System, DeVry University, and Northland College with the development of project requirements, readiness assessments, the implementation of customer service solutions, and the implementation of PMO, SDLC, and Portfolio Management. Ms. Spahn also worked with marketing groups to implement process and technology to support new messaging and initiatives.

Previously she was Director, Business Technology at Indeliq, responsible for supporting all phases of the operations of the business including sales, customer service, product management, finance, and technology. As a part of her duties, she implemented and managed product development, software development methodology, and all business intelligence reporting as well as overseeing the Quality Assurance Team, the Customer Service Team, and the Change Control Board. In the re-organization of Internet commerce of Grainger, Ms. Spahn was Manager, Business Applications for Works.com, providing support for finance, sales, and customer service while also acting as Manager, Business Architecture for Grainger Internet Commerce. Her major responsibilities included analysis, project management, and quality assurance of all Internet Commerce projects. Ms. Spahn has experience as a technology manager, program manager, and business/system/program analyst with a variety of different companies. She brings a valuable mix of business and process skills to the Delta Initiative team.