Former Department of Defense official to succeed Jim Prendergast

Welby

A former U.S. Department of Defense official has been tapped as the next leader of the $470M-revenue IEEE in Piscataway, N.J.

Stephen Welby, the former U.S. assistant secretary of defense for research and engineering, will become executive director and COO of the electronics engineering association on Jan. 2, 2018. He will succeed Jim Prendergast, who announced in February he was retiring after nine years at the helm of IEEE.

Welby was appointed to his former role by President Barack Obama in 2015, As assistant secretary, he was principal adviser to the Secretary of Defense on all science and technology matters, as well as chief technology officer for the DoD. He previously was director of the Technical Technology Office for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA.

"(Welby) is a dynamic leader with a strong commitment to IEEE's mission," said Karen Bartleson, IEEE president and CEO (a volunteer position at the association). "Working in collaboration with the board of directors, Stephen will help ensure that IEEE is universally recognized as the voice of the global technical community and an essential contributor to the development and implementation of emerging and disruptive technologies."

Welby has an MBA from Texas A&M University and master's degrees in computer science and applied mathematics from The Johns Hopkins University.

Recruitment firm Korn Ferry assisted in the search.