It gives me great pleasure to announce that Van Williams has been selected as UC Santa Cruz’s new vice chancellor for information technology, effective July 1.
Williams comes to us from New York University’s Stern School of Business, where he was chief information officer. He spent more than 15 years with Stern, working in a multitude of roles including chief technology officer and senior director of enterprise operations and solutions. He holds a master's degree in business administration from Stern, and a bachelor’s degree in classical civilization from NYU. His training and experience mean that he understands the liberal arts, information technology, and leadership at a major research university.
I’m so pleased to have found someone with talent, training, and a profound enthusiasm for both UC Santa Cruz and the position. Information Technology Services plays an increasingly important role for our scholarly research, our pedagogy, our service to the community, and our work with one another. This large and vital unit has about 250 employees and interacts with every division on our campus.
The appointment is pending approval from UC President Janet Napolitano.
I sincerely thank members of the search committee for their service including Elizabeth Cowell, university librarian, who oversaw the national search. This group brought us an excellent roster of candidates and worked over the course of two years to find the right person for UC Santa Cruz.
I also would like to acknowledge the superb work and fine leadership of Brad Smith, director of information technology services, research and faculty partnerships, who has been serving as interim vice chancellor for information technology since Mary Doyle’s retirement at the end of the 2017 academic year. He has done an excellent job of leading the unit in the wake of Doyle’s departure and of preparing the ground for Williams’ arrival.
