About the Founder

On July 20, 1969, David E. Vozzola, known as Dave, sat in front of the family television as Neil Armstrong exited the Lunar Module and took the first steps on the moon. Dave had the added perspective of knowing his father was a member of the IBM engineering team that contributed to launching the Apollo 11 mission into space and the first man on the moon. Growing up in the space community of Merritt Island, Florida, Dave spent his early years surrounded by innovation and scientific possibilities once thought impossible.

Dave began his college journey at the University of Florida (UF), studying electrical engineering. While at UF, he entered IBM’s cooperative (co-op) experiential learning program. Dave’s first assignment was in manufacturing engineering, writing an assembly language program to detect errors in the IBM Series/1 minicomputer. Dave’s next project was in the IBM Lab, working with engineers to develop future products based on the revolutionary IBM PC. After two IBM co-op assignments, Dave went out on his own and formed his first company specializing in custom software development for the newly released IBM PC.

After spending almost a decade as an entrepreneur, Dave entered Nova Southeastern University (NSU) night school to complete his bachelor’s degree in computer engineering. At NSU, Dave met a great teacher and lifelong mentor, S. Rollins Guild, PhD, known as Rollie. When enrolling at NSU, Dave’s original intent was to earn his engineering degree to solidify his credibility in technology to expand his company and launch other technology companies.

Although not interested in graduate school, Rollie persuaded Dave to pursue a master’s degree in computer science. After completing his master’s degree, Rollie convinced Dave to enroll in the PhD computer science program and served as his dissertation mentor. Unfortunately, Rollie passed away during the dissertation, placing the PhD on hold. Dave began the PhD journey again at 50 years old. At Capella University, Dave found another great mentor in Jelena Vucetic, PhD, a Serbian-American engineer molded in the likeness of her fellow countryman Nikola Tesla. Under the mentorship of Dr. Vucetic, Dave completed his PhD in Information Technology.

Dave’s doctoral research focused on aligning information technology (IT) and business strategies, also known as IT-business alignment, a top IT concern among researchers and practitioners for the past several decades. Research studies have shown that organizations with improved IT-business alignment increase the value created by the enterprise and outperform the competition. Dave published his dissertation, Development and Validation of a Model to Measure IT-Business Alignment Factors in the Federal Government: A Structural Equation Modeling Analysis.

In addition to Dave’s academic endeavors, he is the chief operating officer and co-founder of Vozzcom, a leading provider of fulfillment services serving the cable industry. As the cable industry transformed, so has Vozzcom, integrating innovative technologies to enhance communications and expand its ability to respond to growing changes in the market. Dave credits his lifelong learning in technology and business to staying informed about new products and services in the cable industry. As a practitioner, he oversees the development and deployment of technologies to create value for Vozzcom and improve the customer experience for their clients.

Dave’s experience as a scholar-practitioner makes him unique in leading the Information Technology Institute for Advanced Study. The scholar-practitioner model is an innovative, educational, and operational model focused on the practical applications of scholarly knowledge. The model’s origination concentrated on improving the training of clinical psychologists. Over the past several decades, this model has evolved in other areas, including business, technology, and healthcare.