EVP/COO Rachael Nava sent the following message to all UCOP staff on Aug. 24, 2021. You can also read an interview with Van Williams by Jeané Blunt, IT communications and UC FCC licensing coordinator at UCOP, on the UC IT blog here.

Colleagues:

Van William’s, UC’s next chief information officer and vice president, Information Technology Services

I am very pleased to announce that following a national search, Van Williams has accepted our offer to be UC’s next chief information officer and vice president, Information Technology Services. Van’s first day in the role will be Sept. 13, 2021.

Van comes to UCOP from UC Santa Cruz, where he has been serving as the campus’s vice chancellor for information technology and strategic initiatives. While at UC Santa Cruz, Van led several campus-wide transformational initiatives to support student success, modernize critical campus systems and strengthen cybersecurity. His portfolio spanned research and innovation, technology-enhanced education, cyber risk, enterprise resource planning, business process optimization and strategic technology corporate partnerships. As the senior information technology officer for the campus, Van is also a member of UC’s systemwide Information Technology Leadership Council.

Prior to UC Santa Cruz, Van spent more than 15 years at New York University (NYU) in various senior roles, including as chief information officer for NYU’s Stern School of Business. Van has an M.B.A. in finance, entrepreneurship and marketing from Stern and a bachelor’s degree from NYU, where he majored in classical civilization (Latin and Ancient Greek) and minored in chemistry.

As UC’s CIO, Van will serve as the enterprise IT leader and strategist for the university, collaborating with campus and health enterprise CIOs, and other leaders across the UC system. Among other duties, Van will play a central role in supporting UCOP’s strategic priorities, which include enhancing information security, simplifying and consolidating the portfolio of IT services, further developing the data analytics infrastructure, supporting online and hybrid education and advancing diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. Van has been a strong advocate for staff mentorship and training and will also sponsor the UC IT Leadership Academy.

I wish to express my gratitude to members of the search committee, who gave their time and expertise to this important effort: Susan D. Cochran, vice chair, Academic Computing and Communications (UCACC) Committee, Systemwide Academic Senate; Alex Bustamante, senior vice president and chief compliance & audit officer, UCOP; Prasant Mohapatra, vice chancellor for Research, UC Davis; Michael Beck, vice chancellor, Administration, UCLA; Theresa Maldonado, vice president, Research & Innovation, UCOP; Pamela Brown, vice president, Institutional Research and Academic Planning, UCOP; Vince Kellen, CIO, IT Services, UC San Diego, and chair, IT Leadership Council; Ann Kovalchick, associate vice chancellor and CIO, Information Technology, UC Merced; Elizabeth Halimah, associate vice provost for Graduate, Undergraduate and Equity Affairs, UCOP (who also served as equity advisor for the search); and Hoyt Sze, managing counsel, Health Affairs & Technology Law, UC Legal.

I also want to express my appreciation to Chancellor Larive for her support of Van’s transition to this systemwide role.  Please join me in welcoming Van to UCOP, I’m thrilled to have him join our team.

Best Regards,
Rachael Nava
Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer

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