Judd Williams

NCAA and its Data-Driven Future

Judd Williams is the Chief Information Officer (CIO) for the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and has served in this role since June 2012. Judd’s responsibilities at the NCAA include all aspects of strategic planning, budgeting, implementation and support of technology initiatives across the national office, membership, and events. Within his first two years at the NCAA, he has increased the “Overall Quality of IT” results over 20 percentage points, while reducing IT costs by over 10% and improving information security at the NCAA. According to the last two greatplacetowork.com bi-annual culture surveys, the IT Department has had the highest department scores across the entire NCAA.

Prior to joining the NCAA, Judd was recruited into the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) Special Advisor Program in 2007. He was named Acting Deputy Senior Executive of IT Business Operations in 2009 and was then promoted to Senior IT Manager and Unit Chief in 2010, where he oversaw three different operational IT groups and was the youngest Unit Chief in the FBI’s IT Branch. Prior to the FBI, he worked for SAIC, Northrop Grumman, and the Defense Intelligence Agency.

Judd currently serves as a Board Member at TechPoint, co-chair of the Evanta Indianapolis CIO Executive Summit, member of the Forbes Technology Council, member of the Auburn University Harbert College of Business Advisory Council, and several other positions.

In 2016, he was named to the Indianapolis Business Journal’s (IBJ) “Forty Under 40” and, in 2017, was named to the ComputerWorld Premier 100 Technology Leaders list. In 2017, he was named CTO of the Year by the IBJ. The NCAA has been honored with being named to the 2016 InformationWeek Elite 100 and the 2017 IDG Digital Edge 50 awards. Lastly, the NCAA IT Department was named to the ComputerWorld 100 Best Places to Work in IT in 2017 (#21) and in 2018 (#7).

Judd holds a BS in Business Administration with a major in Information Systems (IS) and a MS in IS from Auburn University, and a MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.

Judd is married to his wife, Alexa, and spends all of his free time chasing his three daughters, two of whom are identical twins.