About our Vice President & Chief Information Officer (CIO)

Mr. Grillo was named Vice President of Information Technology and Chief Information Officer (CIO) in June of 2011. His passion for leading FIU’s Division of Information Technology is fueled by a commitment to delivering the most innovative technological advancements to the university community. Prior to coming to FIU, Mr. Grillo led the consulting division for PeopleSoft Latin America and the Caribbean region and also worked for Andersen Consulting LLP (currently known as Accenture) as a senior consultant for Fortune 500 companies as a healthcare industry specialist.

Mr. Grillo has fostered partnerships and collaborations with academic, research, and administrative areas to advance the technology and enable FIU to be a top 50 public research institution. With an extensive commitment to the community, Mr. Grillo has always focused on making a positive impact. As an active participant in local, national, and international groups, he fully advocates the pivotal role technology plays in education and research. Most recently, he served as the Chair of the Florida LambdaRail (FLR) Board of Directors from 2020 to 2024.

Mr. Grillo holds a Bachelor’s from Florida International University and a Masters in Finance from Nova Southeastern University. His many accolades include:

• Recognized by HITEC as the top 100 most influential and notable Hispanic Professionals in the Information Technology industry (2017, 2018, and 2019);
• Featured in Hispanic Executive’s The Talent Issue, “How Data Drives Academic Success, Robert Grillo and Florida International University turn to big data to matriculate successful students” (2017);
• CIO Honoree for Miami-Dade by the South Florida Business and Wealth Magazine’s Apogee Awards (2017);
• South Florida Business Journal’s Technology Awards CIO Finalist (2017);
• Winner of the Center for Digital Government’s Cybersecurity Leadership and Innovation Award in the Education Category (2014);
• Winner in the Education category of the South Florida Digital Alliance Awards (2013).

Under his well-guided stewardship, the Division continually develops and deploys innovative solutions to meet the diverse challenges faced by higher education institutions. Mr. Grillo’s progressive vision and guidance have placed the University at the forefront of technological innovation through the:

• Facilitation of an Artifical Intelligence (AI) strategy to provide students, faculty and staff with fundamental AI learning, teaching and operational tools to enhance overall student, faculty and research experience;
• implementation of Business Intelligence Analytics, which provides web-based access to a set of reporting and ad-hoc query and analysis capabilities previously not available to the University community and which can now be accessed and personalized using pre-built dashboards. Continuous enhancement of the Business Intelligence System for Student Success include the implementation of full degree audit analysis providing students access to a custom visualized path to graduation when meeting with their advisor;
• introduction of a Cloud Strategy for Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) and successful migration of all enterprise-wide applications to the cloud. This platform enhances FIU’s access to emerging technologies in order to have rapid development cycles to design, develop, and deploy new requirements to meet the needs of the university;
• implementation of a cybersecurity strategy to protect University resources, which has seen the deployment of Data Loss Prevention (DLP) and Two-Factor Authentication, as well as mandated security training for all employees. Continuous strategy includes new Cybersecurity Initiatives. Through the implementation of a single-sign on (SSO) strategy and enterprise-wide adoption of two-factor authentication, FIU has increased security for the university community;
• implementation of high-performance computing (HPC) for faculty and researchers to process and analyze vast amounts of data swiftly, leading to more efficient and accurate research outcomes and the ability to pursue federally funded grants;
• established the FIU Science DMZ, a partitioned network optimized for high-performance scientific applications and increased network connectivity to 100G to support and facilitate faculty and student research;
• initial release and continuous updates of mobile application which includes intuitive navigation for students to drive necessary information for progress to degree. Students experience seamless access to essential services such as course schedules, grades, campus maps, and real-time notifications, all designed to simplify their academic journey and foster a more connected campus environment;
• facilitation of a $1.25 million award to FIU by the U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to host the National Initiative for Cybersecurity Education (NICE) for five years;
• facilitation of an approximate $2 million award to FIU to train about 800 apprentices through the Cybersecurity Apprenticeship Program (Cyber-CAP) as part of the Department of Labor’s Scaling Apprenticeship Through Sector-Based Strategies grant. Mr. Grillo served as Co-Principal Investigator throughout this initiative;
• facilitation of two awards totaling at $10.3M from the United States National Science Foundation (NSF). The first award was for $6.5M for FIU’s AtlanticWave-SDX, a Distributed Intercontinental Experimental Software Defined Exchange. The second, totaling at $3.8M over 5 years, is for the AmLight Express and Protect (AmLight-ExP) project, which is helping researchers transport their data through a strong multiple 100 Gigabit per second dedicated highspeed network spanning three continents;
• implementation and deployment of a Distributed Antenna System (DAS), which provides stronger mobile Internet coverage to multiple buildings at FIU and thus significantly improving cellular coverage and network capacity;
• inauguration of Panther TECH, an on-campus computer store which provides the University community with a one-stop shop for software and hardware purchases and repairs.