Francis "Fran" Dramis is Executive Vice President, Chief Information, eCommerce & Security Officer for BellSouth Corporation in Atlanta, Georgia. He is responsible for all information technologies for the corporation and for directing the company's eCommerce efforts. In addition, he is responsible for overseeing business continuity and security efforts of the corporation.
A native of Ohio, Dramis joined BellSouth in December, 1998 coming from CIO Strategy, Inc., a Clifton, Virginia-based information technology consulting firm. As a consultant, and often as a transitional CIO, Fran led the major technology transformation efforts at firms such as Coopers & Lybrand, Citibank, NASD and Bankers Trust.
He spent much of his early career with AT&T, including Bell Labs, rising to the position of executive director of information product management. He left AT&T to become president and chief operating officer of Telic Corporation. From Telic, he went to be the managing director and CIO to rebuild Solomon Brothers' technology organization.
Dramis has been actively leading the transformation of technology at BellSouth. He partnered with the leaders of the business to complete a technology roadmap that now serves as the guide for technology investment prioritization.
In eCommerce and Broadband, he led the efforts to enable BellSouth to provide customer, supplier, and employee services via the Internet.
As the Chief Security Officer, Dramis leads the BellSouth Business Continuity and Security Council. In this role, he is responsible for all senior management aspects of BellSouth's physical, network and data security.
As one of the country's leading IT officers, Dramis has been chosen several times in his career as a top CIO. His awards include:
- CIO Magazine's CIO 100 Award in 1999
- CIO Magazine's Top 100 Leaders for the Next Millennium in 2000
- Computerworld's Premier 100 IT Leaders in 2002
BellSouth's IT and Security organizations have received the following awards:
- Computerworld's 100 Best Places to Work in IT (2000, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005)
- Top 10 in Diversity category - Computerworld's 100 Best Places to Work in IT (2004)
- SecurE-Biz Leadership Award
- InformationWeek 500 Most Innovative Users of Technology (Ranked #10 in 2005)
- CIO Magazine's Enterprise Value Award in 2005
He serves as director and chairman of BellSouth Technology Group and is a board member of the BellSouth Solutions Group, Inc., the BellSouth Foundation, and Avocent Corporation.
Dramis received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Rutgers University and a Master of Science degree from Pace University in New York City.