Vice Chancellor for Information Technology Services Van Williams has been appointed the new chief information officer and vice president for information technology services for the University of California system. His last day at UC Santa Cruz will be Sept. 10.
While Van’s departure is undoubtedly a loss for our campus, I am excited to see Van step into this important opportunity and happy that he is staying in the UC system. For more than three years, Van has been a transformational leader on our campus, with his division launching initiatives to support student success, modernize our critical information systems, and strengthen campus cybersecurity.
As UC’s chief information officer, Van will serve as the system's enterprise IT leader and strategist, working closely with campus and health-enterprise CIOs, and other leaders across the system. UC Santa Cruz and the other campuses will be well-served by Van's experience and the perspective he gained leading UCSC’s information-technology division.
Please join me in celebrating Van’s accomplishments on campus and wishing him success in his new role.
Byron Walker, our chief product officer, has been named interim vice chancellor for ITS designee. The unit he currently leads manages infrastructure products, cybersecurity products, business and enterprise systems, and campus technology services/academic computing. I appreciate Byron stepping in to lead the division. I will share more about our recruitment plans for a new vice chancellor later this academic year.
