Keynote Speaker

Mr. Joseph D. Welch
Deputy to the Commanding General, Army Futures Command

Mr. Joseph (Joe) Welch is AFC’s senior civilian executive. He serves in the National Capital Region where he works directly with Army and DoD leadership to accelerate the Army’s modernization and transformation efforts. Mr. Welch oversees all fiscal aspects of the command and integrates the research, development, and engineering efforts of AFC’s headquarters and subordinate elements, including the Futures and Concepts Center, Combat Capabilities Development Command (DEVCOM), and Cross Functional Teams.

Mr. Welch also serves as the Functional Chief of the Army’s Science, Engineering, and Analysis Career Field, leading the career management enterprise of more than 21,000 Department of the Army Civilian professionals. In his previous role as the DEVCOM C5ISR Center Director at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland, Mr. Welch led a workforce of over 3,000 scientists, engineers, business support professionals, and warfighters in discovering and developing innovative technologies to enable information superiority and tactical overmatch for our Joint Forces.

Mr. Welch was appointed to the Senior Executive Service in 2019 and initially served as the Deputy Program Executive Officer, Command, Control and Communications – Tactical (PEO C3T), where he was responsible for the development, acquisition, fielding, and support of the Army’s tactical network and associated information systems.