The Human Side of Technology: Leading People Through Digital Transformation – PILOT Project Update

Dr. Michael J. Rivera joined the Fox School of Business in September 2014 and serves as Associate Professor of Strategy and Entrepreneurship. In this role, he teaches courses in creative problem solving, business model innovation, and innovation adoption and diffusion at the graduate level, including Executive MBA. With a strong focus on bridging theory with practice, Dr. Rivera’s classroom is an active, industry-connected one that prioritizes hands-on practice through live case studies and team activities. Dr. Rivera’s interests include creativity and innovation management, the emerging field of human capital analytics, and how the two connect to shape business strategy. He not only contributes original research in these areas, but also shapes these fields in other ways through his consulting and entrepreneurial startups.

Cliff Tironi is Executive VP of Strategic Accounts for Thinaer, a Platform-as-a-Service that synthesizes millions of physical, digital, and human experience data points every second to create AI-backed business insights. In his role, Cliff oversees the strategic sales efforts by creating trusting, value-driven relationships with Fortune 100 and 500 firms and partner organizations. Acquired by Thinaer in 2020, Cliff is co-creator of Thinaer's proprietary real-time feedback platform, which is the core tool utilized in driving their digital transformation change management. Cliff has a background in data visualization. As an adjunct professor at Florida International University, Cliff teaches Executive MBAs how to be influential communicators, accurately define their business problems, and generate creative solutions to complex challenges, all through the discipline of Data Visualization.