Photo: Mary Layton Thompson
Chris Corrado, B.S.’81
Helping Others “Realize Their Full Potential”
By Claudia Ricci, Ph.D.’96
It’s been 35 years since Chris Corrado made a bet with a University at Albany math professor. He still remembers what he said.
“I bet her that I’d never use linear algebra in my job,” recalls Corrado, now chief operating officer and chief information officer for the London Stock Exchange Group. He chuckles. “And then after I graduated, I went to work for IBM. The first computer language I had to learn was APL, which is based in linear algebra.”
Corrado lost that bet, but he went on to win a string of highly impressive jobs. His work history includes six years at Morgan Stanley in New York City as a systems programmer; two years in Japan as chief information officer for the Far East; a return to New York as head of Infrastructure; a transfer to London for two years as CIO for Europe and Asia; then three years with Deutsche Bank as chief technology officer. Corrado went back to New York City to join Merrill Lynch as chief technology officer for Capital Markets.
When 9/11 struck, Corrado was working at Merrill Lynch in the World Financial Center. He helped to rebuild the capital-markets business, installing thousands of desktops and hundreds of servers – and relocating thousands of personnel – in a matter of days.
When Hurricane Sandy hit New York in 2012, Corrado was working at UBS. Once again he came to the rescue, handling the crisis for the financial-services investment firm.
Looking back, Corrado says his undergraduate education at UAlbany was excellent preparation for his career. He recalls how John Levato, then assistant dean and advisor, made him see how he could apply his major – business administration, with minor concentrations in math and computer science – in the real world of business.
Then there was the statistics professor who encouraged Corrado to combine several of his educational interests into an emphasis on management information systems. At the time, MIS was exclusively a graduate program. But Corrado was in the first class of undergraduates who focused on MIS – an opportunity that laid the foundation for his very impressive career.
It wasn’t just academics at UAlbany that shaped his development, however. Each summer during his undergraduate years, Corrado stayed in Albany, working for the University’s Office of Residential Life as part of a team that repaired dorm rooms after students had vacated them. At one point, Corrado got his first chance to manage a group of workers: four young men on a University painting crew.
Today, he oversees 2,000 people for the London Stock Exchange’s technology and operational areas. Corrado runs the day-to-day operations of the exchange, information businesses, clearing and settlement businesses, and technology companies. In addition, he manages security, property and commercial services.
All in all, Corrado says UAlbany “was the best investment” he ever made.
When asked what he is most proud of in his illustrious career, Corrado doesn’t hesitate: “of helping people realize their full potential – i.e., getting others to do things they did not think they were capable of doing.”
