Donald J Welch

Don Welch is the Vice President for Information Technology and Global University Chief Information Officer for New York University. Previously he was the Vice President for Information Technology and Chief Information Officer at the Pennsylvania State University. Don started at Penn State as the Chief Information Security Officer. At Penn State he was also an Affiliate Professor in the College of Information Sciences and Technology and the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. Previous to Penn State, he was the CISO for the University of Michigan including all campuses and the Health System. In both universities he was instrumental in strategically orienting information assurance with the universities mission and strategy. He was a member of the Michigan Governor’s Cyber Security Advisory Council and was a co-author of Michigan’s Cyber Strategic Plan.

He was the CEO of Merit Network from 2006 to 2014.  During that time Merit added a full portfolio of IT services, created the internationally recognized Michigan Cyber Range and built 2400 miles of fiber optic cable as part of the 2009 Stimulus program. He received numerous awards to include being named a Champion of Change by the White House, Top CEO for Michigan, and Leader and Innovator of the Year.

He has held leadership roles in many committees, conferences and advisory councils for education, technology and information security. He was an executive board member, vice chair and chair of The Quilt, the association of the nation’s research and education networks. He was a director of the Michigan Information Technology Center which promoted economic development through IT. He served two terms on Michigan’s 9-1-1 committee. He served on advisory boards for Internet2, Oakland University, Lawrence Technical University and Eastern Michigan University.

Don served as the CTO and Director of Merchandising Systems at H-E-B, a $12B retail/distribution/manufacturing company that operates in Texas and Mexico. He introduced the enterprise architecture domain to H-E-B. He also created and ran the Technology Innovation Store where new technologies and uses of technologies were piloted and evaluated.  

He served in the U. S. Army, retiring as a Colonel and earning the Legion of Merit. His last position was CIO and Professor of Computer Science at West Point. He has over 3 dozen publications in cyber security and software engineering and regularly presents at professional conferences. Some of his other Army assignments include tours of duty with the Army’s counterterrorist unit Delta Force, and service as the senior human resources manager for the Army’s uniformed information technology workforce. At the start of his Army career he commanded two light infantry companies and three infantry platoons.  

He has a BS from West Point, MS in Computer Science from Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo and the Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Maryland. He also earned paratrooper wings and the Ranger Tab.