After its second search, Ohio University chose Brice Bible to become its latest chief information officer.

Communication with people in the university, continuing university efforts to eliminate Social Security numbers as unnecessary unique identifiers and finding a house — which Bible quipped he’d be doing before he left town — will be his immediate priorities when he becomes CIO on April 16, Bible said.

"I believe this to be one of the best opportunities in IT that exists in the country today," Bible said.

When he takes office, Bible will be the university’s seventh CIO in 11 years, and will be the first with a cabinet-level position.

"I have a good bit of background in creating security programs for a large research university and have dealt with issues that come from that,” Bible said. "There are no guarantees that the information will be protected, but we will certainly do everything we can to continue to protect it."

In two security breaches last spring, 300,000 records containing 137,000 Social Security numbers and an additional 60,000 medical records were exposed to hackers. The university has since hired two consultant firms, instituted a perimeter firewall and fired two information technology administrators.

Bill Sams, CIO at the time of the security lapses, stepped down Fall Quarter. Shawn Ostermann, who has served as interim CIO since December, replaced Sams while the university continued its search.

“The university is better today because of what he was able to accomplish in a few short months,” OU President Roderick McDavis said about Ostermann’s tenure.

A CIO search was held in the fall, but the chosen candidate declined the position because he wanted to remain close to his father, who’d recently fallen ill.

Bible, who serves as interim CIO and assistant vice president for Information Technology at the University of Tennessee’s Knoxville campus, was one of three candidates for the position.

The decision was announced today at a news conference hosted by McDavis.

OU CIOs

Paul Gandel: 1995 – 1997

Tom Daniels (Interim): 1997 – 1997

Doug Lawrence (Interim): 1998 – 1999

Doug Mann: 1999 – 2003

William Sams: 2004 – 2006

Sean Ostermann (Interim): 2006 – 2007

Brice Bible: Starts April 16, 2007