Sreenath Sreenivasan

Sreenath Sreenivasan
Sree Sreenivasan in New York, July 2016
Born	(1970-10-28) October 28, 1970 Tokyo, Japan
Residence	New York, USA
Nationality	USA
Citizenship	U.S.A.
Education	Columbia University, St. Stephen's College
Occupation	Chief Digital Officer at the City of New York
Employer	City of New York
Spouse(s)	Roopa Unnikrishnan
Children	2
Parent(s)	T.P. Sreenivasan, Lekha Sreenivasan
Website	Sree.net

Sreenath "Sree" Sreenivasan (born October 28, 1970)^[1] is the chief digital officer of New York City. He was previously the chief digital officer at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and chief digital officer of Columbia University. He has been a technology journalist based in New York City^[2] and served as an academic administrator and professor in the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. In 2015, he was named one of Fast Company magazine's Most Creative People of the year.^[3] He was also identified as the most influential Chief Digital Officer of 2016 by CDO Club.^[4]

Early life

Sreenivasan was born in Tokyo, Japan, and grew up in USSR, United States, Fiji, and India. Sreenivasan's father was a diplomat for the Indian government which meant his family often relocated.^[5] He attended kindergarten in Moscow, P.S. 6 in Manhattan, Marist Brothers High School in Suva, Fiji, and St. Stephen's College in Delhi, India. He received a Master of Science degree in journalism from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in 1993.^[1]

Career

Sreenivasan was on the faculty of the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism since 1993 as a professor of professional practice. His courses at Columbia focused on new media, web design and social media in the practice of journalism as well as media entrepreneurship. Currently still serving as an adjunct professor, he also regularly runs workshops for working journalists on the advanced use of the Internet and multimedia reporting.

In 2005, Sreenivasan was appointed Dean of Students at the Journalism School,^[6] overseeing student-oriented programs. He is the former advisor to the school's chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists and won the David Eshelman Award for Outstanding Campus Advisor in 1998.^[7] In 2008, he was named Dean of Student Affairs,^[8] supervising admissions, student services and career services at the school. On July 11, 2012, Columbia University named Sreenivasan its first Chief Digital Officer.^[9][10]

Sree Sreenivasan teaching a social media class in Times Square, NYC

Sree Sreenivasan interviews Craig Newmark, founder of craigslist, at Social Media Weekend 2016

Sree Sreenivasan giving address at 2016 Columbia Journalism Alumni Awards

Sreenivasan was appointed the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Chief Digital Officer in August 2013. In this role he supervised 70 employees throughout the museum.^[2]

Sreenivasan helped found SAJA, the South Asian Journalists Association, a group of over 1,000 ^[11] journalists of South Asian origin in the U.S. and Canada and served as its first president and continues to serve on the board and as an editor and writer of SAJAforum, one of the most widely read South Asian news and analysis blogs. He was also named by "UNITY: Journalists of Color" in a seed list of one of the 100 top journalists of the century.^[12]

He served as the "Tech Guru" on WABC-TV for six years, before moving to WNBC-TV as technology reporter in January 2007. He appeared twice a week on the air and on WNBC.com until January 2009. From 2009 through 2011, Sreenivasan helped launch and develop DNAinfo.com, a hyperlocal news startup covering Manhattan, founded by Ameritrade founder and Chicago Cubs owner Joe Ricketts.^[13]

He has contributed more than 50 articles to The New York Times on business and technology, and has hosted more than 40 episodes of his own podcast, the @SREE SHOW, for CBS Radio.^[14]

In May 2016, Sreenivasan made news headlines by creating an effort to boycott participating in all-male panels and conferences and events.^[15][16] He would later update this to also pledging not to attend any all-male panels.^[17][18]

In 2016, after three years at the top digital post at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, he announced he was leaving the post amidst the Met's financial troubles. Despite the president of the Met, Daniel Weiss, calling Sreenivasan "a superstar," a looming $9 million to $10 million deficit^[19] was facing the museum, which led to parting ways with Sreenivasan and other high-profile executives such as Cynthia Round, the museum’s senior vice president for marketing and external relations, and Susan Sellers, head of design.^[20][21] At the Met, Sreenivasan led the redesign of their website and the development of a smartphone app.^[20][22]

On August 1, 2016, he was named chief digital officer of New York City by its mayor, Bill de Blasio.^[23]

Accolades

• In 2004, Newsweek magazine named him one of the 20 most influential South Asians in the U.S.^[24]
• In 2007, India Abroad named him^[25] one of the 50 most Influential Indian Americans in the U.S.
• In 2009, he was named one of AdAge's 25 media people to follow on Twitter^[26]
• In 2010, Quill magazine, published by the Society of Professional Journalists, named him one of 20 journalists to follow on Twitter ^[27]
• In 2010, he was named one of Poynter Institute's 35 most influential people in social media^[28]
• In 2015, he was named one of Fast Company magazine's Most Creative People of the year at number 39.^[3]
• In 2016, he won the Columbia University School of Journalism Alumni Award^[29]

Personal life

He became a US Citizen in 2013.^[30] He is married to Roopa Unnikrishnan.^[31]

References

External links

• Sree.net personal site
• Sreetips.com tips site
• Meet Columbia's New Media Guru OJR.org
• An Evangelist for Technology Who Helped Invent the Game New York Sun