CIO Unscripted with Eric Hawley — Getting Invited Back

Niel Nickolaisen chats with Eric Hawley, CIO of Utah State University, for a conversation that covers a lot of ground. Eric shares how his career started by accident, and how nearly every opportunity since has come by invitation rather than application. The conversation touches on what it looks like to build relationships across a complex, decentralized organization, how to know when edge experimentation has reached the inflection point where centralization actually makes sense, and how he thinks about AI policy in higher education, where the instinct to lock things down too early can create more risk than it prevents. Eric also gets into what he calls a "table of trust," and why building that group of people you can work through anything with might be the most important thing a technology leader can do. About Eric Hawley: Eric Hawley is the Chief Information Officer at Utah State University, an R1 research institution, where he has served in the CIO role for over 15 years. He has built his career almost entirely by invitation, and still teaches at USU to stay connected to the real work of the university he supports.