SIM SPARC Names Michael J. Szot Co-Chair

The Society for Information Management is pleased to announce that Michael J. Szot has been named Co-Chair of SIM SPARC, serving alongside Bill Waas.

SIM SPARC connects CIOs, CTOs, CISOs, CDOs, and senior technology executives with vetted, high-potential Series A startups working in AI and agentic systems, automation, robotics, cybersecurity, and other frontier technologies. The program gives technology leaders early visibility into emerging capabilities, and gives startups structured, enterprise-grade feedback from the people who actually evaluate and deploy technology at scale.

Launched out of the ReThink Everything! SIG, SPARC is now establishing itself as a Special Interest Group in its own right, a reflection of how quickly the program has grown and the appetite across the membership for structured engagement with emerging technology companies.

Michael has been part of SPARC since its founding, serving as a working member of the program's Steering Committee through launch. The co-chair role formalizes a contribution that has been shaping SPARC from the inside since day one.

Beyond SPARC, Michael is President of the NJ SIM Foundation and runs MJS Advisory Services, a strategic business advisory firm. 

"SPARC matters because it closes the gap between what startups build and what enterprises actually need, replacing guesswork with direct, credible feedback from the people who make the buying decisions. My vision is to grow the Advisory Council's depth and reach across every SIM chapter, so SPARC becomes the trusted front door for enterprise-ready innovation nationally." — Michael Szot

The co-chair structure reflects what SPARC now requires: a credible, well-vetted startup pipeline, and an Advisory Council with enough seniority and industry range that its feedback carries weight. Michael will focus on building out the council and deepening SPARC's reach across SIM chapters, while Bill Waas continues to lead program strategy and SIM National alignment.

After three decades of assisting leaders in healthcare, life sciences, and pharma with complex technology decisions, I've come to realize one crucial insight: the organizations that excel in transformation are not necessarily those with the largest budgets — they are the ones that benefit from the clearest, most independent guidance. 

That's why we are pleased to announce that MJS Advisory Services has been engaged as an Advisory Partner by the Institute for Digital Transformation. 

In this capacity, I will facilitate connections between senior executives in highly regulated industries and the Institute's valuable resources, including its research, frameworks, and the Advisory+ network — a vendor-neutral group of experts in healthcare technology advisory that I hold in high regard. 

Healthcare and pharmaceutical leaders are currently facing intense demands: they must modernize rapidly, comply more rigorously, deliver improved outcomes, and demonstrate value sooner. What they truly need is not another vendor pitch but trusted, independent pharmaceutical transformation guidance. 

I am honored to contribute to providing this essential perspective. 

For more information, visit our website at: http://www.institutefordigitaltransformation.org/ 

Read the full announcement at: https://www.institutefordigitaltransformation.org/michael-j-szot-advisory-partner/

We are pleased to announce that MJS Advisory Services has  been engaged as an Advisory Partner at MeetSynthia. 

MeetSynthia is a new enterprise AI control layer designed to help organizations use AI safely, consistently, and with dramatically higher ROI.

Most companies are experiencing the same friction: employee adoption is inconsistent, outputs vary in quality, and teams rely on brittle prompt engineering that often leads to rework, compliance exposure, and unpredictable results. While today’s models are powerful, they still improvise—because nothing governs how they reason.

MeetSynthia solves this problem by sitting between your employees and your AI models, automatically embedding business rules, compliance requirements, brand standards, and role-specific context into every AI interaction. The result is safer, more accurate, fully aligned output—every time.

Synthia governs reasoning before generation, not after—replacing guesswork with governed performance. It ensures enterprises stay in control of AI behavior, rather than outsourcing judgment to the model. 

Organizations using Synthia report:

•  90% reduction in compliance risk

•  80% reduction in review and edit cycles

•  5–10× faster workflows, with typical payback in under 30 days 

•  Creation of a new form of enterprise-owned IP: your brand, compliance, and reasoning encoded into reusable guardrails 

Learn about how MeetSynthia is helping our clients recognize immediate impact, and how it can support your AI initiatives with control, trust, and measurable ROI.  

Visit our website at: http://www.MeetSynthia.ai or contact me directly to learn more.