Donald Stanford is a founding member of GTECH Corporation (renamed IGT Global Solutions) and currently serves as its Chief Innovation Officer and Technology Fellow.
Don began working for GTECH’s startup founders in 1979 as Manager of Software Development. Over thirty nine years, he has held every technical leadership position, including Vice President of Advanced Development and Chief Technology Officer. Stanford guided the growth of GTECH’s technology organization from a software staff of four in 1979 to its current worldwide deployment of over one thousand technology professionals. Under Don’s leadership GTECH advanced the state of the art in transaction processing, security, and wireless communications which enabled it to become the global leader in the Lottery Gaming industry, while installing and operating lottery systems on six continents in over one hundred jurisdictions.
Stanford earned a Bachelor of Arts in International Relations in 1972 and a Master’s in Computer Science/Applied Mathematics in 1977 from Brown University. Don serves on several boards including Year Up Providence, Spectra Systems and the Business Innovation Factory. Don is a past member of the R.I. Science and Technology Advisory Council. In 1998 Don was a founding board member of Rhode Island’s first public charter school, Times2 STEM Academy.
In 2001 Don was appointed Adjunct Professor of Computer Science at Brown University and has been teaching The Digital World to undergraduates since 2002. He is also an Adjunct in the School of Engineering and is a guest instructor in the Program in Innovation, Management and Entrepreneurship (PRIME). He has served on the Brown advisory councils to the President and the School of Engineering.
In 1999 Don received the Black Engineer of the Year Award for Professional Achievement. In 1999 he also received the Honorable Thurgood Marshall award for community service from the NAACP. In 2002 he received the Brown Graduate School’s Distinguished Graduate award and the R.I. Professional Engineer’s award for Community Service. In 2009 he was elected to the Lottery Industry Hall of Fame by the Public Gaming Research Institute.
Don and his wife Jane live in Pawtucket, R.I. and St. Thomas, U.S.V.I.
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