Aaron walz

I am currently the Senior Director and Department Head of Information Technology for the Colleges of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine at Purdue University, a role I’ve been in since 2021. I’ve been at Purdue since 2013, previously serving as the Technology Director for a large-scale enterprise systems project and Director of the Business Intelligence Competency Center. Before joining Purdue, I spent over 12 years at the University of Illinois with the Decision Support team, most recently as the Assistant Vice President for Decision Support.

I’ve been managing people for more than 20 years, the last 10 of those as a director. I’m especially interested in the strategy and planning aspects of leadership and management, organizational behavior, personal effectiveness, and promoting organizational health. As one of the founders of the original MGRdev program and the Manager Development Institute, it’s been fantastic to be able to work with so many others who are passionate about honing our skills as managers. Like most managers, I’ve also been affected quite a bit by both positive and negative role models throughout my career. I’ve had to learn most of what I know the hard way, and I think this is a great opportunity for us to learn from each other and “pay it forward” for others on this journey.