Meet Steve Cipollone, Senior Director Cloud & Infrastructure Solutions

What is your Parexel story?

In 2008 while a student at Northeastern University, I was given the opportunity for an internship at Parexel. During the last year of a three-year internship, I was offered the chance to become a full-time Systems Engineer!

For the next four years, I supported Parexel’s core IT Services, introducing new technologies to better support the business. I briefly left the organization for a role in sales, before returning to Parexel as a manager of the same System Engineering Team I was once part of.

Today I lead the team that supports the technology tools I helped build during my early years at Parexel.

What motivates you to work With Heart™ every day?

Knowing the work we do at Parexel impacts the lives of patients globally. Knowing the connection between what we deliver and the lives we impact motivates me.

Reflecting on your work at Parexel, what are you most proud of?

Growing into a director of the organization I worked in for many years. Seeing Parexel’s Data & Technology organization (formerly known as IT) grow into what it is today, having the opportunity to develop my own skills and helping shape the organization’s future strategy are all successes I am proud of.

What is an example of a technology solution you helped implement that has impacted Parexel or our patients?

In the Data & Technology world, we help enable our teams with the tools and technologies they need to support customers and patients. When a system is down, this can impact the business. We adopted scale-out/scale-up storage and hyperconverged virtualization platforms as recently as last year. These platforms allow us to refresh old technology assets without causing an outage for applications our colleagues rely on. Not only do these technologies allow us to easily remove technical debt, which helps improve our bottom line, but they are the foundational building blocks to begin automating infrastructure delivery, which can improve efficiencies across the business.

What is one way you always keep “Patients First?”

Although my teams may not interact directly with patients, I understand the projects we are a part of help support clinical trials that impact the lives of patients globally. With this in mind, I work to ensure the technology solutions we design and deliver are resilient and minimize any potential disruption to our clinical trials and ultimately our patients.

Share a favorite Parexel memory:

I have fond memories of the Parexel Winter Gala, which used to be held in the Boston Seaport. It was an exciting evening spent with colleagues ― dancing, laughing and having fun. Many of us would stay overnight and enjoy brunch in the morning while still in the city.