Fayetteville, Ark. — Southwest Power Pool Inc. (SPP) recently became the latest member of the Information Technology Research Center (ITRC) in the Sam M. Walton College of Business at the University of Arkansas. Southwest Power Pool joins 17 other industry-leading organizations among the research center’s membership. 

“Southwest Power Pool increases the diversity of ITRC membership. Since its inception the ITRC has worked with companies from a variety of industries and with governmental IT organizations. SPP is our first not-for-profit, non-governmental member and it provides a perspective that we have previously lacked,” said Brad Lawless, managing director of the research center.

Kevin Perry, director of information technology, is SPP’s representative to the research center’s  board of advisors. ITRC member organizations appoint one person to sit on its board.  The board of advisors, comprising some of the nation’s leading information technology executives, meets regularly to provide input on the center’s research direction, Walton College curriculum and technology trends.

“Kevin brings a wealth of industry experience and knowledge to the board,” said Lawless. “We are quite pleased to have someone of his caliber working with the center.”

Perry joined SPP in June 1997. Currently serving as director of information technology, Perry manages the SPP information technology department, which is responsible for the administration of computer resources and telecommunication networks; application development and support; project management; and technology deployment.

Perry also serves as the vice president of the Arkansas chapter of InfraGard, a cooperative undertaking between the U.S. government (led by the FBI) and an association of businesses, academic institutions, state and local law enforcement agencies, and other participants dedicated to increasing the security of United States critical infrastructures.

During his career Perry has also worked at Entergy, Empros Systems International, Control Data Corp., NASA-Langley Research Center and the U.S. Army Computer Systems Command. He received a Bachelor of Science degree in management information science from Christopher Newport University and a Master of Arts in computer resources and information management from Webster University.

SPP, a federally approved regional transmission organization, is a group of 44 electric utilities serving more than 4 million customers across all or parts of eight southwestern states. This membership comprises investor-owned utilities, municipal systems, generation and transmission cooperatives, state authorities, wholesale generators and power marketers. SPP serves as a regional reliability council of the North American Electric Reliability Council and, since 1997 has provided independent security coordination and tariff administration, pursuant to a tariff approved by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, across its service area with more than 33,000 miles of transmission lines with a gross plant investment approaching $4 billion.

The ITRC was established in the Walton College in 1999 with a portion of the endowment created by the Walton Family Charitable Support Foundation’s 1998 gift of $50 million. The ITRC coordinates IT research for and with organizations, works with students groups to stimulate interest in the field of information technology and hosts research workshops and conferences.

For more information on the ITRC, check the Web at http://itrc.uark.edu or contact (479) 575-5291.