David Welch
Chief Strategy Officer, Founder, Infinera

David Welch serves as Chief Strategy Officer at Infinera. Dr. Welch was previously CTO and Vice President of Corporate Development of SDL and JDS Uniphase, where he was responsible for technology and acquisition strategies that culminated in the $41B acquisition of SDL by JDS Uniphase. After the merger of SDL and JDS-Uniphase, Dr. Welch served as Senior Vice President for JDS-Uniphase, responsible for technology direction, integration, and business development activities for the amplification and transmission portions of the business. He had previously served as SDL's Vice President of Research and Development. Dr. Welch joined SDL as a research scientist in 1985 before taking the roles of Vice President of R&D, Vice President of SDL's Systems Business Group, and CTO and Vice President of Corporate Development.

Dr. Welch has published over 250 articles and is an author of over 50 patents in the area of optics. Dr. Welch has been awarded the 1992 Adolph Lomb Award from OSA, the 1998 Engineering Achievement Award from LEOS, the 1999 Fraunhoffer Award, and his contributions have been acknowledged in over 17 product-of-the-year awards. Dr. Welch is a fellow of the OSA and a senior member of the IEEE.

Dr. Welch earned his B.S. degree in electrical engineering from the University of Delaware and his Ph.D. in electrical engineering from Cornell University.