Charles R. Thomas is President of the Consortium for Higher Education Software Services (CHESS). He has been one of the recognized leaders in higher education computing for the past thirty years.
Mr. Thomas has consulted with well over a hundred colleges and universities, either independently or as part of NCHEMS project teams. These have included institutions of all sizes, public and private. He is familiar with all the major vendors providing ERP software and applications support, learning management systems, and portals. He is a recognized expert practitioner in executive information systems, contract negotiation, and quality assurance and process management. He has taught management seminars and executive development programs on computing, technology management, and decision support for NCHEMS, WACUBO, NACUBO, CAUSE, and CASE.

Mr. Thomas has held a variety of high visibility and responsible positions in higher education. He was the first Executive Director of CAUSE and he was one of the founders of the National Center for Higher Education Management Systems (NCHEMS). Mr. Thomas served as a Vice President for Information Associates and has been active in consulting and thought leadership. Early in his career he was Assistant Director of the University Office of Administrative Data Processing at the University of Illinois. Mr. Thomas is an expert in ERP evaluation and implementation, learning management systems, and data warehousing.