I am pleased to announce that, effective August 1, 2015, David Swartz, currently chief information officer (CIO), will become our vice president and chief information officer.

Dave joined American University as our chief information officer in 2007. For the past year, he has reported directly to me and served as a member of the senior managers group, making numerous important contributions to our bi-monthly meeting. During his tenure, he has revolutionized our technology infrastructure during a period of constant change and established an enterprise-wide portfolio management process that has enabled us to prioritize and fund critical investments in systems and software to support learning, scholarship, services, storage, and security.

In addition to his current responsibilities, supervising the Office of Information Technology, Dave will assume leadership of AU's Enterprise Risk Assessment Project Team.

One of the most highly respected educational technology leaders in the nation, Dave's work at AU has been outstanding. Among the many things he has accomplished is infusing his division with a strong service ethic on both the institutional and individual levels of transactions. The former is reflected in service relevant agreements with the other divisions of the university. The latter is reflected in the numerous metrics for performance that he has put in place to monitor service on individual calls for assistance. He has assembled and led a group of technology professionals who are effective, efficient, and collegial in working with the entire AU community. Dave has established a standard that all colleagues in his division will earn the relevant professional qualifications for their position and provided the necessary support to advance this objective.

During Dave's tenure our internet capacity has essentially doubled every two years and we became an institutional member of Internet2. Our focus on all aspects of security has sharpened and intensified with periodic tests to determine our susceptibility to those who seek to exploit system weaknesses.

In partnership with Provost Bass, our academic units and Vice President Flannery he has played a central role in efforts to improve recruitment and admissions processes for our graduate programs. His many individual accomplishments have been acknowledged at the national level by EDUCAUSE with their selection of Dave as Higher Education IT Leader of the Year in 2012. His efforts to support and develop staff contributed to our selection last year as a "Best Place to Work" by Computerworld, one of only two universities in the top 100 to be included on this prestigious listing.

I know you join me in congratulating Dave Swartz and in wishing him and his colleagues continued success in their important work on behalf of American University.