Jorge de Cárdenas served as Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer for American Campus Communities and was responsible for defining and leading technology and digital transformation strategy for the organization. Under Jorge’s technical leadership, American Campus Communities became one of the top performing publicly traded real estate companies in the U.S., increasing its value from $300 million to $12.8 billion over the 18 years before being taken private by Blackstone. Jorge and his team revolutionized the way technology is used in the student housing industry. Under his direction, American Campus implemented the first “gigabit to the bed” Internet service in the country, providing student residents the access they needed to succeed in their college careers. During this same time, Jorge’s team developed a proprietary enterprise-capable Leasing Administration and Marketing System (LAMS) – the first of its kind in the industry – as well as the Market Survey business intelligence platform, and the Strategic Marketing System, a comprehensive web-based marketing planning and execution tool. At American Campus, Jorge also oversaw Technical Services, which focused entirely on property-based technology enablement. His team worked closely with the development group to ensure each community had the proper infrastructure for current and future technology needs, while securing local vendor support with best-in-market pricing and services. Prior to joining American Campus Communities, Jorge was director of product management for emerging technologies at VISA. From 1991 to 1994, he co-founded and served as principal consultant of Everest Technologies, an Oil & Gas IT consulting firm, which later sold to SAIC. Jorge began his career developing software for NASA at Lockheed Engineering and Science and supported 11 space shuttle missions. As a constant innovator in the tech space, Jorge is strongly committed to education that emphasizes creativity for the future problem solvers of the world. He currently serves as a mentor and Advisory Board Member for Applied Cybersecurity Clinic at the University of Texas Strauss Center for International Security and Law. Additionally, Jorge helped to raise the bar in arts education by serving as Board President for the Austin School for the Performing and Visual Arts for 16 years.Jorge received a B.S. in Computer Science with specializations in Mathematics and Management from Texas A&M University and is CERT-certified in Cybersecurity Oversight from Carnegie Mellon University.