With the start of a new year, so begins Zach Regan’s new job of IMA Treasurer. As a junior Management Information Systems (MIS) major, this is Zach’s first position in IMA. He began his involvement with the organization at the beginning of his sophomore year.

As an MIS major, Zach said he joined IMA as a way to get involved, for career development and to meet other students in his major. After his first year in IMA, Zach decided to run for a position because he said he wanted to get more involved with the inner workings of the organization.

Zach said that in addition to information technology, he is interested in finance and accounting, which is what intrigued him about the treasurer position. Additionally, Zach said he thought it would be beneficial for him to gain financial experience to make himself more well-versed in the different areas of business.

As the new treasurer, Zach hopes to drive interest in IMA amongst students and ultimately raise attendance at meetings. For his position in particular, he hopes to seek more funding so the club can put on more events and workshops for members.

As for Zach’s personal future goals, he is interested in pursuing a career in Information Security. He said an internship he had last summer in Information Security at 1-800-FLOWERS really sparked his interest in the field.

“It’s something that’s always changing and very interesting to me, I love reading the articles when companies get hacked and I want to see what I can do to improve in that field, to see what I can do to help,” Zach said.

Zach said that IMA has allowed him to see the different career opportunities available in his major and to network with different companies throughout his time in college. He said that having face-to-face time with professional recruiters through IMA events has given him practice with informal interviews.

One of Zach’s goals for the year is to grow the organization through additional members and resources. Zach encourages students to join IMA because he believes it guides you in your career, gives you exposure to all of the different opportunities available and gives you the tools for successful a career development.

Tyler Lauretti is a junior at UConn, majoring in Management Information Systems (MIS) and minoring in Computer Science. He is the UConn Campus Representative for Apple, an Advanced Technician at the University Information Technology Services (UITS) Help Center, and the incoming president of the Information Management Association (IMA). This past summer, Tyler held an IT internship at Travelers Insurance Company in Hartford.

Information Technology plays an important role in Tyler’s life and work.

“I have always had a passion for technology and I am fascinated by finding new ways to improve our lives through technology,” Tyler said.

The interesting thing about technology for Tyler is how much our lives revolve around it. People are constantly interacting with technology, sometimes without even realizing it, he said. Many large businesses are starting to invest millions of dollars into IT departments with the intentions of discovering new ways to improve efficiency, he said.

“I am looking forward to using my creativity and technical abilities to make a difference in the world,” He said.

Out of all areas of information technology, Tyler is most interested in artificial intelligence. Artificial intelligence was previously known to be science fiction, but Tyler said there have been major breakthroughs with cognitive computing platforms, such as IBM’s Watson.

Tyler said he was initially unsure what he wanted to do with his MIS degree because of the many different career options. He decided to join IMA to get informed about the different career opportunities available in information technology and about what IT companies are looking for in potential candidates. He believed that it would give him the information and tools to succeed in his professional life.

Now, as the future leader of IMA, Tyler hopes to expand the organization’s reach to other schools at UConn. Tyler believes that information technology has something to offer everyone. He said that the initiatives that the Operations and Information Management (OPIM) Department is working on for the upcoming semester can be beneficial to all students. Tyler wants to reach out to all majors because he feels that there will be something that interests everyone.

After his time at UConn, Tyler would like to start out working for one of the major insurance companies in the Hartford area. During his internship at Travelers, Tyler experienced many different areas of the insurance industry, as well as, corporate information technology. One of his goals is to gain exposure to as many different areas of information technology as early in his career as possible. As for a long term goal, Tyler hopes to move to California and work in Silicon Valley someday.