Don Welch

Hometown: Buffalo, NY

PSU Connection: Employee

School: University Park

Department: Information Technology

Position: Vice President for Information Technology and Chief Information Officer

Memorable moment in your Penn State career: Being VP for Information Technology and Chief Information Officer for Penn State.

Active Duty or Veteran: Veteran

Branch: Army

Rank: Colonel

Rate/MOS: Infantry

Where/when did you serve: Ft Benning, GA; Schofield Barracks, HI; Ft Frontenac, Ont, CA; Cal Poly State University, San Luis Obispo, CA; United States Military Academy, West Point, NY; Ft Leavenworth, KS; Washington, DC, Ft Bragg, NC; University of Maryland, College Park, MD; 1979 – 2004

Awards: Legion of Merit, Department of Defense Meritorious Service Medal, Army Meritorious Service Medal

What was your favorite military assignment/duty station and why? 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment – Delta (Delta Force) Ft. Bragg, NC. Worked with exceptional people who were world class experts in their specialty. Had all the resources we needed, but could not fail.

Don Welch, Army, Colonel (ret), served 25-years in service followed by several roles in the civilian realm.  His last position before leaving the Army was chief information officer and professor of computer science at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. Some of his other assignments include tours of duty with the Army’s counter-terrorist unit Delta Force, and service as the senior human resources manager for the Army’s uniformed information technology workforce.  In civilian life, he served as Chief Executive Officer of Merit Network in Michigan, which provides networking, security and community services to member organizations; Chief Technology Officer at H-E-B, a retail/distribution/manufacturing company that operates in Texas and Mexico; and Chief Information Security Officer for the University of Michigan.

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