Welcoming Ricardo Peralez to HPL as Assistant Director of Digital Strategies

Dear Team HPL,

It is with great pleasure that I introduce Mr. Ricardo (Rick) Peralez who will serve as our new Assistant Director of Digital Strategies (formally HPL IT.) After an extensive nation-wide search, we invited Mr. Peralez to join our HPL Team and lead the Digital Strategies Division.

Mr. Peralez has a wealth of experience in both the library and technology industries. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Information Systems, a Master’s degree of Business Administration and a Master’s degree of Library Science. He has over thirteen years of professional library experience including eight years in a leadership capacity. Since 2006, Mr. Peralez has served as Associate Library Director for Resource Management at the University of Texas – Pan American. In this position Mr. Peralez oversees the functions and services of 9 library departments and 34 staff members. His team supports 20,000 students and he manages a $2.5 million dollar materials budget. He has managed library technology projects including migrations to vendor hosted systems, establishment of wireless networks, research and implementation of new services and technologies to increase student support.

Mr. Peralez’s passion for excellent customer service, strong leadership skills, technical experience and grasp of technology trends that impact the library industry are essential for his new role. As Assistant Director of Digital Strategies, Mr. Peralez will serve as a member of the Executive  Management Team and provide leadership and advocacy for HPL’s organizational priorities.  Chief among his responsibilities will be collaborating with HPL leadership and staff to develop and implement a technology plan, steeped in continuous improvement, that supports library services and programs and system wide operational needs. In addition, he will serve as HPL’s primary liaison to the City of Houston Information Technology Services (HITS).

Rick wanted to send this message to all of you:  “I am very excited to be joining the team and HPL.  I am looking forward to meeting everyone and working together to do great things for the library and our customers.  I am a father of two.  My son will be starting high school and my daughter will be starting 7th grade in the Fall.  In my free time, I enjoy camping and the outdoors.  I love animals.  My daughter and I share Sunny, our one year old Husky. Rick’s photo is attached.

Mr. Peralez’s first day on our team will be Monday, June 22, 2015. I am looking forward to his contributions to HPL’s future successes.

Please join me in welcoming Rick to HPL!

Best Regards,

Rhea Brown Lawson