James “Jim” Pete received the 2018 NACCU Distinguished Service Award during the 25th Annual NACCU Conference in Reno on April 25, 2018. The award was presented by ASSA ABLOY’s Angelo Faenza.

The NACCU Distinguished Service Award, sponsored by ASSA ABLOY/PERSONA, is presented to recognize an individual who has made contributions not only to a particular campus, but to the card services industry as a whole — raising the stature of the profession.

James Pete (left) receives the 2018 NACCU Distinguished Service Award from ASSA ABLOY's Angelo Faenza (right).

The recipient of the 2018 Award, Jim Pete is the Deputy Chief Information Officer for Campus Services at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Jim’s focus at Georgia Tech is all about team effort with campus services and partnerships both on and off campus.

Jim's accomplishments during his tenure at Georgia Tech are extensive and include creating the first Georgia Tech campus card program, the “BuzzCard.” Jim also championed the next phase of the campus card program by enabling smart contactless credential technology.

Most recently he has begun initiating a $13 million-dollar, 4-year project to reimplement physical access control across the Georgia Tech campus. The project involves transitioning three existing systems of records to a single platform. Jim has also recently collaborated with the Georgia Tech Athletic Association, Sodexo, and Blackboard to deploy a Sequoia point-of sale platform throughout all campus athletic facilities. 

In addition to his accomplishments at Georgie Tech, Jim has also demonstrated his appreciation for sharing campus card knowledge with others through his participation at conferences, training events and webinars. 

Having only missed two NACCU Annual conferences since attending his first in 1997, Jim’s service and dedication to NACCU has been tremendous. During this time, Jim served on numerous conference committees and the Board of Directors as Treasurer, then President.

His accomplishments while serving on the Board include the development of an Association Reserve Policy, implementation of a five-year budget forecasting model, crafting a new Committee Guidelines and Responsibilities framework, and leading the planning activities for the 2012 conference held in Seattle, Washington. 

Jim has been a leader, innovator, visionary and devoted member of NACCU and the campus card industry. NACCU congratulates James Pete as the recipient of the 2018 NACCU Distinguished Service Award.