“I loved my work the way I loved Iona.” – Flory Netsch Hiatrides
Building a Business Using Technology Flory Netsch Hiatrides ’83, ’86MBA, was a dynamic force on Iona College’s campus, not only during her four years of baccalaureate study and then study for the MBA, but for some years afterward as she directed Iona’s Institute for Computer Studies, which started on campus. Hiatrides made what ultimately became an independent company into an outstanding example of entrepreneurship at its best. Her first business venture: Executive Education Institute, which gained its start at Iona College. As an Iona student, one of Hiatrides’ first classes every day was in computing, with Antony Halaris, the force largely responsible for creating IT at Iona. Impressed by Hiatrides’ talents in his classroom, Tony Halaris asked her to run the first Iona College Computer Day Camp, in the summer of 1980, between her freshman and sophomore years. The Computer Day Camp was the first example of Hiatrides’ talent for seeing trends as they began to develop and exploiting them in her technology training by incorporating those trends into computer education well beyond the summer day camp. At the time, she noticed that the parents of the children in the computer day camp needed to learn about computers themselves, so she started including parents in the sessions. Soon, even adults who did not have children in the day camp sought to learn about computers. Flory met with Br. John Driscoll, Iona’s president at the time, and explained the need to develop an educational tool for adults that extended beyond the day camp. From there, the Iona Institute for Computer Studies was born. The institute offered seminars for adults in such areas as Lotus 1-2-3 and WordPerfect, and then Hiatrides targeted specific groups with seminars in Lotus for medical doctors or financial managers. With an uncanny feel for the trends, Flory moved into customized training and then into corporate consulting, offering the institute’s services to specific corporations. By 1990, the Iona Institute for Computer Studies had grown so large that it needed to move off campus. With Br. Driscoll’s approval and blessing, Flory created the Executive Education Institute as an independent organization. continues on next page
Summer 2017
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