Thornton May Futurist, Executive Director & Dean IT Leadership Academy Thornton May - futurist, educator, author - is to CIOs what Jane Goodall was to apes - observer, advocate and friend. At Nolan Norton & Co. he was on the research team that first coined the phrase Chief Information Officer in 1987. His extensive experience researching and consulting on the role and behaviors of Boards of Directors and “C” level executives in managing information technology has won him an unquestioned place on the short list of serious thinkers on this topic. Thornton combines a scholar's patience for empirical research, a stand-up comic's capacity for pattern recognition and a second-to-none gift for storytelling to the information technology management problems facing executives. Thornton has established a reputation for innovation in executive education, pioneering the Lyceum (a time-compressed, intense learning experience designed to keep Chief Information Officers abreast of emerging technology trends); the Directors' Institute (a forum for Board members to increase their awareness of technology management issues); and the Controller's Institute (arena for European Chief Financial Officers to fine tune processes associated with making technology investments). Thornton designs the curriculum that enables the mental models that allow organizations to outperform competitors, delight customers and extract maximum value from tools and suppliers.