Qualifications
My qualifications for the position of IEEE President derive from a diverse range of experiences including IEEE leadership positions, other professional society leadership positions and a professional career spanning over 34 years.
I have been an active IEEE volunteer leader for over 28 years. As Vice-President of Member and
Geographic Activities (MGA), I served as a Corporate Officer of the IEEE leading a global network of
volunteers serving the needs of over 430,000 members in over 190 countries worldwide through a network of 10
regions, 333 local sections and 2,350 student branches. As IEEE Secretary, I served as a Corporate Officer of
the IEEE, member of the IEEE Board of Directors and chaired the IEEE 
Governance Committee. As Director of Region1, I was responsible for a geographic network of
volunteers supporting the professional needs of nearly 43,000 members in the northeastern United States. I
began my IEEE volunteer leadership journey as the Chair of the Mid-Hudson Section, serving roughly 1,000
members in the New York Hudson Valley. Additionally, I have served on the Education Activities Board (EAB),
Publication Services and Products Board (PSPB), Audit Committee, Strategic Planning Committee, Nominations and
Appointments Committee and Fellows Committee of the IEEE.
I have gained additional experience by serving in leadership positions in several of my other
professional societies. I served as the Chair of the Member and Education Services Council of the Optical
Society of America (OSA), a professional association in optics and 
photonics with a global network of over 18,500 members from the optics and photonics community.
Additionally, I served on the Board of Directors, Science and Engineering Council, Finance Committee,
Strategic Planning Committee and Tellers Committee of OSA. I also served as the Chair of the Education
Committee of the SPIE – the international society for optics and photonics – which serves more than 235,000
constituents from approximately 155 countries. Additionally I served on the Strategic
Planning Committee and Nominating Committee of the SPIE. Finally, I have served on the Board of
Directors of ABET – an organization that accredits over 3,100 programs at more than 670 colleges and
universities in 24 countries in the disciplines of applied science, computing, engineering, and engineering
technology.
In my professional career I have managed the personnel, budget and strategic direction of a
complex, interdisciplinary academic department with 71 staff and faculty from electrical engineering, computer
science and information technology disciplines, an interdisciplinary basic research center and an academic
program responsible for a modern electrical engineering curriculum. Having been a faculty member at West Point
for over 20 years – the first engineering school in the United States and one of the premiere leadership
institutions in the world – I have had the opportunity to study 
leadership theory, practice leadership techniques in a fairly wide variety of roles and
circumstances, and reflect on the successes and failures of these experiences. Additionally I have experience
as a satellite communication engineer, responsible for design, installation and test and evaluation of a
high-capacity, world-wide digital communication network. I also served as the Chief Scientist and Science
Advisor for a $4.5B organization dedicated to solving the improvised explosive device problem, worldwide. In
this capacity, I was responsible for coordinating efforts at the highest levels of the scientific and
engineering enterprise, internationally. These efforts included industry, academia and government agencies
from the United States, Canada, England, Israel, Australia, Germany, France, Japan, and New Zealand, to name
several.