2006 PRESIDENT'S REPORT

“I was Oxford-educated. I came
from England to The University of
Montana, another world-class
institution. I am as inspired by my
students as they are by me.”

- David Firth -
Assistant Professor,
Information Systems & Technology

The accent is a dead giveaway: David Firth is not from around here. The English-born, Oxford-educated information systems professor doesn’t sound like his colleagues, but he has folded seamlessly into their shared mission at UM’s School of Business Administration. Firth, who’s worked in the weapons sector of the Ministry of Defense in Great Britain as a physicist, at an accounting firm in Dallas, Texas, and the information systems consulting branch of a huge firm in San Francisco, arrived ready to teach at UM in 2003.

In his introduction to Managing Information Systems class, a required class in the business school, Firth looks at information systems from a global perspective. He focuses on works like Thomas L. Friedman’s “The World is Flat,” a book that touts the importance of information systems in today’s world.

“It’s easy to get a bunch of IS guys to say IS is important,” Firth says. “But guys like Friedman, a three-time Pulitzer Prize winner and foreign correspondent for the New York Times, are saying it’s one of the most important things.” Information systems people make sure that people extract value from the technology at their disposal. “We make sure businesses can do business,” Firth says. And students who study under him do that before they leave with their degrees in hand.

Information systems majors work with local nonprofits, such as the Boys and Girls Club, Missoula Flagship Program and United Way, to advise and assist them with databases, networks or their Web presence. With more than 500 nonprofits registered in Missoula, Firth sees the supply of opportunities for students here much like the opportunities in the wider world. “There are always problems that need solving.”

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