1. 4/11/2015 Crain's Cleveland Business
http://www.crainscleveland.com/article/20150402/CIO15/304059992/mike­mcmanamon?template=printart 1/2
CIO OF THE YEAR 2015
MIKE MCMANAMON
Cleveland Sight Center
By JEREMY NOBILE
11:01 am, April 2, 2015
The Cleveland Sight Center, created to educate, empower and employ people with little to no vision, may not be what it is
today without the efforts of CIO Mike McManamon.
It was McManamon's innovations that enabled the nonprofit a few years back to launch its call center, where the staff is
90% composed of work­disabled individuals.
Besides enhancing the group's own mission of assimilating individuals with sight impairments into the workforce, that call
center, which has a suicide hotline, also brings in more than $1 million in annual revenue via contracts to the agency.
His programs help employees conduct calls. His systems make data entry for the visually impaired possible. His software
streamlines billing down to nearly two steps.
He's even developed a work­at­home model managed through a secure teledata link.
And those are just some of the ways McManamon has shaped the organization into the institution it is today.
“He has really brought a level of expertise to the creation of our infrastructure and our hardware network,” said CEO
Steven Friedman.
McManamon strives for innovative and streamlined IT practices that have increased efficiencies significantly and saved
hundreds of thousands of dollars at the nonprofit, Friedman said. And that's most critical for a nonprofit with limited
resources employing 145 people.
The call center is not only functional because of McManamon, it's seeing “explosive” growth today thanks to his work.
His long­term efforts include the ongoing consolidation of swaths of data and replacing systems with the cloud­based
system Compulink.
“Delivering the impossible and attaining what nobody thinks can get done is a regular accomplishment,” according to his

2. 4/11/2015 Crain's Cleveland Business
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MIKE MCMANAMON
nomination.
But McManamon's impact in the group, and the community at large, transcends his work with Cleveland Sight.
McManamon, a Carnegie Mellon University alum and a member of the Geauga Growth Partnership, is working on the
collaborative Big Gig Challenge initiative to expand high­speed broadband services across Northeast Ohio.
He's also involved with the Chagrin Valley Chamber of Commerce and the Council of Smaller Enterprises, where he has
led sessions on IT security in home offices.
He's also a member of Executive Advisory Council of the Society for Information Management and St. Helen Parish in
Newbury and sits on the midTECH advisory council.
McManamon is involved in HealthCare Benefits Inc. and the Inland Seas Boat Co., designing and delivering humanitarian
relief to the needy around the globe, among other efforts.
“I can't say I've worked with anyone more devoted to achieve the mission of an agency like ours as Mike,” Friedman said.
“And no matter what, he does it with a smile on his face and the phrase "no problem' — even when the servers crash."
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