Biography

Joe Kennedy was born, Joseph Lewis Rodriguez to a young Puerto Rican mother and a Portuguese father in Boston Massachusetts on October 17, 1971. His young mother, wanted Joe to have a better life and put him up for adoption. Joe entered the foster care system as an infant and was adopted at the age of four (4) by his foster family, the Reverend Paul and Mrs. Carol Kennedy.

Joe grew up the son of a minister, his father, a graduate of Harvard Divinity School, was the Senior Pastor for the Trinity Lutheran Church in Worcester, Massachusetts, and his mother Carol was an office manager in a nursing home. The Reverend Paul and Mrs. Carol Kennedy instilled in Joe the importance of philanthropy. An example of this lifelong commitment to the community is that the Kennedys are the benefactors of a new wing of the Lutheran Home, a nursing home in Worcester, Massachusetts, due to open in spring of 2010.

Joe was primarily raised in Worcester Massachusetts. He attended the Flag Street School, Forest Grove Middle School, Doherty Memorial High School and Clark University, all in Worcester, Massachusetts. After receiving his Bachelors of Arts in Computer Science from Clark University in 1993, Joe entered the computer science and information technology field.

Over the past sixteen (16) years Joe has served as a software developer, department manager, and held executive-level positions for a number of large companies and information technology firms, including Fidelity Investments, Parexel, and his present employer, a Fortune 500, Boston-based provider of financial services(Joe’s present employer requires its employees who run for office to not use the name of the company in any literature etc. hence its omission here). Joe has over thirteen years of managerial experience working with and leading multi-national staffs with personnel in the United States, Britain, Germany, China and India.

Joseph Kennedy has a broad base of information technology experience and specializes in the design, development and delivery of cost effective, high-performance technology based solutions to address and solve the often complex problems and needs of large scale organizations. Joe has experience in all areas of information technology from infrastructure and telecommunications planning/management to application and systems development and enterprise architecture, and possesses significant expertise in strategic planning, enterprise architecture, rich internet applications, user experience, interface design, mergers and acquisitions, systems development, telecommunications, computer infrastructure, process, support, open source and open source law.

Joe’s expertise is widely recognized in the information technology world and is a sought after speaker, often invited to give presentations on cutting-edge technologies at conferences and forums held across the globe.

In Joe’s spare time he has assisted many startup and non-profit organizations in building out their technology presence and has served in advisory positions for a number of small firms as they get off the ground. Joe has served on the Board of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, the NICSA Technology Advisory Committee and mValent’s Technology advisory Board.

Joe lives in Dedham and is an avid snowboarder and musician.