Meet Michael Spalding: Executive Vice President - COO/CTO

After joining the Phoenix Innovate (PI) team in 2019 as the company's Chief Technology and Compliance Officer, Michael Spalding is now the Executive Vice President, Chief Operating Officer and Chief Technology Officer.

Mike brought over 30 years of experience in Information Technologies Operations Management to PI, including system design and engineering, policy and process implementation, and security and compliance leadership.

Before joining Phoenix Innovate, Mike spent 27 years in multiple roles in the distributed marketing, warehousing and fulfillment arena. In these roles, Mike was responsible for strategic planning, formulating and deploying long-term plans for acquiring and enabling efficient and cost-effective information processing and communication technologies to support the web and call center ordering process of the organization’s fulfillment and distribution clients.

Mike was previously responsible for managing a team of more than 55 IT professionals in 14 locations across North and South America and managing seven data centers hosting 100s of applications and sites for customers in the entertainment, automotive, health care and pharmaceutical industries around the world. He also led the process required to receive and maintain certifications for ISO, SAS70, PCI, SAE16 SOC1 and HIPAA compliance. He also led the design and implementation of the disaster recovery and business continuity plans, procedures, audits and enhancements, a process he also leads at Phoenix Innovate.

During his time at Phoenix Innovate, Mike led our efforts to become HITRUST CSF Certified which we earned in March 2022. Mike and his team’s efforts helped place PI in an elite group of organizations worldwide that have earned this certification in a data-secured environment which is a significant benefit to the health care industry we serve. In addition, Mike plays a significant role in our operations, client technology and data-related solutions.

“Phoenix has been dealing with our clients’ sensitive donor, financial, education and HIPAA data for 13 years now. We have always made the care and security of that data our highest priority,” said Kirk Vercnocke, CEO of Phoenix Innovate. “Bringing Mike on board was a natural progression of being self-reliant on such a critical commitment on behalf of our client community. Mike has been the architect of our data security systems working as an external IT partner and now we get 100% of his time, talent and skill, I am very excited to have him on the team.”

When not behind a keyboard, Mike enjoys traveling and camping with his wife and plans to visit every National Park in North America.

(Note: This blog, originally published in 2019 to introduce Mr. Spalding as a new member of the Phoenix Innovate team, has been updated to reflect his new leadership role in the company.)