By Jose Rivera
After 10 years as CEO of CSIA, Jose Rivera is stepping down. The following is a partial transcript from his farewell speech during the Awards Ceremony at the 2025 CSIA Conference in San Diego.
It has been an honor to serve as the CEO of CSIA for the past 10 years.
I also want to thank my family. They are here with us tonight: my wife Kate; our daughter, Claire; and our son Lucas. With the single exception of 2019 Asheville, my wife and sometimes our kids have joined us for every CSIA Conference Awards Ceremony that I have been part of.
When I broke the news to our kids about my decision to step down from my CEO role, they were very sad.
How Did CSIA and I Cross Paths?
I knew ARC from my days at EMR and SE. A little more than 10 years ago, I reached out to wish them happy holidays. I shared that I had left SE and was in transition to my next challenge.
They mentioned the role of CEO at CSIA and encouraged me to apply. I was very intrigued and applied. The rest is history.
The takeaways are:
Be open to new challenges and opportunities. While I had spent all of my career in the automation space, running an association of industrial system integration wasn’t on my radar screen.
Don’t underestimate the power of networking. I’m preaching to the converted as you are all at this conference where networking is one of the main ingredients.
The CSIA Challenge
Before CSIA, I worked for large companies with strong automation businesses: Siemens, Emerson Electric, Schneider Electric. Coming to CSIA was quite a transition.
I was comfortable with my automation background, but had to learn everything related to running an association. I appreciated all the help I received from Bob Lowe, the past executive director, and from our previous AMC.
I appreciated all the members that welcomed me and shared about their companies and the value they derived from CSIA.
Learning doesn’t stop after onboarding. I have learned from our current AMC, Kellen, from Lisa Richter, from other associations, from great association management books, and, of course, from our members.
Our organization (CSIA) is like many of the companies of our SI members: Very lean and we all get to wear different hats throughout the day.
My brain gets stretched from working on highly strategic initiatives, developing the budget for the following year, to preparing for my next calls or booking my next travel.
Running an association is, nevertheless, different from running a SI company.
Until you work here, you’ll never truly understand what it takes to run an association.
More Thanks
CSIA wouldn’t be here today were it not for our extraordinary staff. There is a ton of heavy lifting that is not and should not be visible to our members.
Except for 2020 and 2021 (pandemic years), CSIA has organized an annual conference since its early years.
The process starts very early with the selection of the site close to two years in advance. Planning for the next conference starts at the end the previous one.
During the challenging pandemic, I got to witness the best of our staff as we all fought for the survival and “thrival” of our association.
Today CSIA is more resilient and enjoys a more diversified revenue profile thanks to the actions taken during the pandemic.
We also set up and have kept the option for SIs to get certified or recertified via remote audits.
I want to recognize Lisa Richter, Jill Gabbert, Monica Saunders, Karaina Callahan, Holly Lundgren, and Carolina Casas. CSIA and I couldn’t have done it without you.
CSIA Needs to Continue to Evolve and Adapt
CSIA understands that our system integration industry is undergoing significant changes. System integration has solid growth drivers. Together with the retirement of SI company founders, we will continue to see important industry consolidation.
This has implications for our membership, for the value CSIA provides, our approach to certification, etc.
While technology like AI will reduce some of the areas where SIs currently deliver value, there are many other areas where SIs can provide greater value.
Digital transformation provides SIs with these opportunities. It requires changes to the sales approach, client engagement, business models, etc.
CSIA needs to continue to focus on the management of the system integration business as we have done from the foundation of this association.
What the system integration business entails is nevertheless constantly evolving, and we need to keep up with it.
The CSIA community is very diverse. Our role is not to convert anybody.
Our role is to provide you with options for you to decide where you want to take your company.
The demographics of our association continue to change.
We started as a white men’s club. If you look around, you see a much more diverse crowd.
Every association needs to transition to the next generation, and the CSIA Emerging Leaders have done a great job in this regard.
Final Thank you
Over the past 10 years, I got to work closely with many of you, often by working together on the board, various committees and so many of our initiatives.
I have developed very strong relationships that I hope will continue. It is impossible to mention them all.
I want to thank the past Chairs Luigi de Bernardini and Adrian Fahey. While most of you were busy ensuring the survival of your companies, these gentlemen delivered true leadership during very challenging times. Adrian (in Australia) would take very early calls, and Luigi (Italy) very late ones. It was a time to be creative, make bold decisions, and make it happen. And we did!
I also want to thank Karen (Griffin), as she was the Chair that had to lead our association on the search and recruitment of the new CEO. This was a big ask for our Chair.
You need to remember that Karen has a big day job as leader of the SI business of her company. Kudos to her.
The role of the Chair is a key one. The Board of Directors likes to debate a lot. At the end of the day, decisions need to be made, and the association needs to move on.
Karen did a great job on this front.
I wish Daren (Dieleman) all the best in his role as the Chair of the board. I have worked with Daren, and I’m confident that he will be a great Chair.
I want to welcome Adrienne Meyer as the new CEO of CSIA.
It will be my pleasure to assist you in your onboarding along with the CSIA staff. I’m following the example set by Bob Lowe and the previous AMC and the CSIA members.
Thank you all very much.
