Closing the Technology Skills Gap

To get work done today and in the future, leaders must embrace technology and the gig economy. Resistance is futile, yet we continue to ignore the technology skills gap, which threatens the future vibrancy of the U.S. economy, workforce development and national security. Who is responsible for creating it? What are the best solutions needed to address it?

This week’s special guest is Gary Beach, Publisher Emeritus, CIO Magazine, Wall St. Journal journalist, and thought leader, who is an authority on closing the technology skills gap. We will be discussing how technology links to strategy as a business imperative and discuss steps that must be taken to embrace diversity in the technology world.

Gary Beach’s career spans over three decades in the information technology media business. He has held executive posts at McGraw-Hill on Data Communications, the world’s first digital networking magazine, and at International Data Group where he was publisher of Network World (1987), Computerworld (1991) and CIO Magazine (1997). In 1999, he founded of CIO India Magazine.

Mr. Beach contributed technology commentaries to National Public Radio’s “All Things Considered” and “Morning Edition” programs for four years and appeared regularly for a decade on CNBC’s “Squawk Box”, “Squawk on the Street” and “The Closing Bell” programs where he spoke about technology investment and acquisition trends.

In August 2013, John Wiley and Sons published Mr. Beach’s best-selling book “The U.S. Technology Skills Gap” which critics acclaim the “best contextual history of STEM education written”. In 2014 he began an assignment as a columnist for The Wall Street Journal’s CIO Journal where he writes regularly on the topic of technology talent.

In 2015, Mr.Beach began work on “The Skills Gap Almanac” which appears on the Twitter platform, and monthly he partners with Oklahoma State University’s Institute of Technology to publish the “Skills Gap Misery Index” which measures the pain caused by the skills gap.