Senior Director, Strategic Innovation & Partnerships
Jorge is a strategist, technologist, and partnership builder working where research networking meets artificial intelligence. His focus is converting infrastructure capability into services institutions can use — and making sure the organizations serving education own that capability rather than rent it.
As Senior Director of Strategic Innovation & Partnerships, Jorge leads Sun Corridor Network’s expansion beyond commodity connectivity into AI infrastructure, sovereign data services, and managed networking for Arizona’s research and education community. He holds a concurrent appointment as Senior Director of Digital Infrastructure at Arizona State University, giving him a direct line between the state’s largest research enterprise and the network that connects it. Recent work includes a purpose-built AI fabric for the Mountain West, regional internet exchange presence in Phoenix, and extending SCN’s fiber reach to health systems and K-12 districts statewide.
Jorge holds a Doctor of Professional Practice in Global Leadership and Management from Thunderbird School of Global Management at Arizona State University. His doctoral research examined how artificial intelligence and human teams operate together inside a governed network operations center — work that now informs SCN’s approach to AI operations at regional scale.
He works closely with the Tri-University system, Arizona health systems, and peer research and education networks across the West. SCN’s non-profit, member-owned structure, he argues, is a genuine advantage: it lets the network advise institutions on AI and infrastructure with no vendor stake in the outcome.