The Changing Nature of Work

The Fox School’s Institute for Business and Information Technology in collaboration with the Management Information Systems department presents the Fox IT distinguished speaker series, featuring talks by leading professionals on essential business technology topics.

Jack Hughes
Founder and Chairman
TopCoder, Inc.

February 10, 2011

The world of work is rapidly changing. The internet will have profound effects on how companies manage a highly diverse, mobile and global workforce. Management models will undergo shifts to meet these new challenges and opportunities. Managers will need to develop new skill sets, measurement and motivation systems to engage these new models of work. Mr. Hughes will discuss these changes and their effects in the context of TopCoder – the world’s largest competitive software development community.

Biography

In November 2000, Jack Hughes founded TopCoder on the premise that talent and skill are the determinant factors in the quality and utility of software — and software has become central to the global economy.

In both his own programming experience and as co-founder and chairman of Tallán Inc., a provider of web-enabled business solutions, Hughes recognized that while successful projects were driven by superior programming skills, the talent was unqualified and largely unrecognized. TopCoder’s mission is to create objective ratings that place high value on the programming industry’s best and brightest, and build opportunity and community for programmers through ongoing programming tournaments and employer connections.

Under Hughes’ tenure as chairman at Tallán, the company was recognized as one of the fastest-growing technology companies in North America four years in a row by consultancy firm Deloitte & Touche and by Inc. magazine for its outstanding performance. In 2000, CMGI, Inc. acquired a majority ownership of the company.

Hughes holds a Bachelor of Science degree in computer science from Boston College. He is Chairman of the Board for the Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation.

Registration and attendance

Attendance is free on a space available basis for qualified industry and academic professionals. For more information, please contact ibit@temple.edu.