PBN C-SUITE 2021 AWARDS
Christopher Earle
YMCA of Greater Providence director of information systems
YMCA of Greater Providence Director of Information Systems Christopher Earle’s importance to his organization goes beyond keeping the Providence-based nonprofit’s information technology online.
Earle’s time with the YMCA began in 2013 when he was hired as a consultant to help with budgetary matters. “It was my first real exposure to nonprofits, and I wasn’t sure if it was going to be there for a long time but really enjoyed the work I was doing and the people I was with,” he said.
Earle was hired full time by the YMCA in January 2014. It hasn’t been just about the technology for Earle, as he’s managed to find new opportunities and enjoyed new challenges, including participating in other projects such as decommissioning sites and property sales.
“One thing that’s really grasped me at the Y is the mission and the people that we serve,” he said. “I get that I’m in IT [information technology], but I always am thinking about our members and our staff, how we can help them, how we can give them better tools to do what they do.”
Earle also is one to not take sole credit of his accomplishments at the YMCA.
“I think any recognition that I would ever receive is really a reflection on the folks that I work with,” he said.
CEO Steven O’Donnell had nothing but praise for Earle’s work and versatility at the YMCA.
“He’s super gifted in information systems and technology, but I’ve utilized him in other things well beyond IT,” he said, highlighting Earle’s work on helping to sell property, as well as his work on budgeting. “When we do budgets, he not only brings in the IT piece, he brings in the analytical view on how we do our budget, which is very helpful, analyzing how we set budgets, set restraints.”
Among Earle’s work on budgeting is teaching the various branches run by the YMCA of Greater Providence to create and stay within their budget, O’Donnell said.
“He just does so much more than a typical IT person, and his typical IT function, he’s superb at that also,” O’Donnell said.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Earle again proved his worth to the YMCA. With a serious reduction in staff and facilities closing, the organization had to reopen strategically as conditions improved.
“He constantly is analyzing that data and pushes it down to the team and helps them understand that data, how that impacts us positively and negatively,” O’Donnell said.
With the advent of Zoom and meetings needing to be done remotely, Earle stepped up to keep things running smoothly. He said that while it was surreal to see YMCA buildings closed, there were already some things that worked to the organization’s advantage, such as having a number of users in the cloud and having a good virtual private network.
“I think our readiness for something that we never could have ever foreseen, it was nice to see that the work that we had been doing put us in as good of a place as we could be leading up to that,” Earle said. “And then when it really took off last March, we were able to continue to adapt and be flexible, knowing that the Y is not necessarily a place where we have the most tech-savvy staff, and so just making sure that we were supporting people in a way that they could still do what they needed to do.”
O’Donnell said he thinks Earle has a lot of potential to grow within the YMCA.
“He’s a leader, he’s relied upon not just by me but by my staff, staff well below,” he said. “He leads by example, and that’s really the best type of leadership in my opinion.”