Chip Byers

Chip Byers provides long-range vision and strategy for MOREnet. As the Director of Strategic Initiatives, he managed the planning and implementation of Missouri's first fiber-optic research and education network -- MOREnet's Next Generation Network (NGN).

Since 1995, Byers has provided leadership and vision for MOREnet as the longest-serving member of the senior management team. Byers served nine years as Director of Operations with responsibility for all MOREnet's technical operations and three-quarters of MOREnet's staff. Byers has been an active, contributing member of the StateNets and QUILT communities, two national organizations that represent the depth and breadth of research and education networks and regional optical networks.

Byers has a rich history of public and private IT positions with such organizations as Datastorm Technologies, University of Missouri - Columbia, USDA's National Center for Animal Health Information Systems (NCAHIS), ANR Freight Systems, CitiCorp/Diners Club International and Playboy International Corporate Data Systems.

Byers received a B.S. in Business Administration with concentrations in Computer Information Systems and Accounting from Colorado State University.