Don joins the Here to Serve board with a wealth of C-Suite experience and leadership in information technology services. After an early retirement in 2015 as CIO from Wells Fargo Capital Finance, Don assumed the role of Executive Director, UCLA IS Associates (ISA), University of California, Los Angeles overseeing the IS Associates’ operations, activities and policies, and providing advice and guidance to ISA’s Executive Board. Previous to that, from 1997 to 2014, Don was the Chief Information Officer at Wells Fargo Capital Finance, a leader in asset-based financing. Don provided technology and properties support for a business that grew from less than 200 employees and $750M in assets in 1997, to 1,750 employees and over $33B in assets in 2015.
Don managed an annual budget of $25-$30M with 1,750 users in 22 offices, both domestic and international. During his 18-year tenure as CIO, the technology and properties division of Capital Finance supported the company’s rapid growth through agile applications support, timely infrastructure upgrades, successful mergers and acquisitions, rapid office consolidations and shared-services integrations, and positive internal and external audit results.
He also served as head of application development for Foothill Capital (2 years), and in senior project management positions with both Providian Bancorp’s technology group in Northern California (8 years), and the Card Services division at Bank of America (13 years). Don shares, “I became aware that families of modest means, confronted with serious and costly illnesses, face major adjustments and dangerous financial and logistical risks and challenges. Having grown up in a family with five kids raised by a single working parent, I understand some of these difficulties even without the serious challenges a major illness can create. Since the care Here to Serve provides is supported and delivered through a technology platform, I’d like to apply some of the expertise I’ve acquired in my 42-year career in technology to assist in the Here to Serve mission.”
