IDC announced the hire of Steve Conway, a 20-year veteran of the high performance computing (HPC) and IT industry, as research vice president in the company's Technical Computing Systems group. Conway, who will report to Technical Computing Systems program vice president Dr. Earl Joseph II, has made major contributions to the group as a consultant since 1999. He has co-authored key IDC studies and reports, helped organize and advance IDC's HPC User Forum, and provided important perspectives on HPC user and vendor strategies. "Steve is an out-of-the-box thinker who brings a wealth of HPC industry experience and expertise to his IDC role, along with a global network of relationships, especially within the user community," said Joseph. "He will help us to anticipate important trends and to provide thought leadership and practical guidance for users, vendors and other members of the HPC community." "Under Earl Joseph's leadership, IDC's Technical Computing Systems group has been experiencing strong growth and making a real difference for clients and the overall HPC industry," according to Vernon Turner, Group Vice President and General Manager of IDC’s Enterprise Computing. "As we continue to invest and establish local HPC research talent in Japan, Asia and EMEA, we feel that Steve's global perspective will be a tremendous asset. Steve has also played an important role in the group's success in recent years, and we're pleased to have him here, inside IDC. Since Steve has worked so closely with us for seven years, he will be making an immediate and positive impact for IDC’s customers, which is, of course, a unique advantage that we are proud to have.” Conway previously was vice president of corporate communications and investor relations for Cray Inc. and headed corporate communications for Cray Research and CompuServe Corporation. He had a 12-year career in university teaching and administration at Boston University and Harvard University. Conway is a former Senior Fulbright Fellow. He holds bachelor's and master's degrees in German from Columbia University, and a master's degree in comparative literature from Brandeis University.