About Michael Vahle

Michael Vahle is Vice President of Information Technology (IT) Services, Division 09000, and Chief Information Officer (CIO). In that role, Michael is responsible for the vision and leadership of Sandia’s information technology, information management, and cyber security strategy. The balance between information technology and information management solutions and distinct customer/programmatic requirements is a major focus.

Previously, Michael was the Director of Center 05200, Defense Systems & Assessments (DSA) Strategic Management Unit (SMU) Operations, Plans and Strategy; he also served the division as Acting Vice President of DSA. Before serving in 05200, Michael was the Director of the Systems Mission Engineering Center at Sandia National Laboratories, which is responsible for the design and development of satellite ground stations and remote sensing technologies and was the Program Director for Space Mission Program. Mr. Vahle managed a center of 350 personnel, with advanced degrees in engineering and science. The organization specialized in advanced systems pioneering new capability, developing both complex hardware and software systems.

Prior to that assignment, Michael was a Program Director in the Nuclear Weapons Program at Sandia where he had responsibilities for the $200M Simulation-Enabled Product Realization Program including, among other elements, the Advanced Simulation and Computing Program and the Nuclear Weapons Information Environment Initiative. Mr. Vahle led this program during the development of a massively parallel high performance computing platform which scored on the list of top ten machines worldwide. He also led the development of advanced simulation tools for modeling of extreme environments with significant increase in model fidelity.

Before that he was the Director of the Computing and Network Center at Sandia National Laboratories, where he was responsible for the development and implementation of networking and communications infrastructure, the operation and support of the corporate information delivery systems and scientific computers, and the management of the computer security program, all in support of the network for a laboratory of approximately 10,000 personnel with multiple levels of security.

Mr. Vahle currently serves on the Innovation Leadership Advisory Board at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign and in the past served on the review committee for the Computation Directorate at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories. He has served in various capacities at the IEEE annual conference on Supercomputing. He was recently elected to the Academy of Computer Science at the Missouri University of Science and Technology.

Mr. Vahle was a member of a team that won an R&D100 award titled ATM OC-12 Protocol Engine. He has published several articles on cryptography, advanced networking, artificial intelligence, and operations research.

Prior to joining Sandia, Michael was an officer in the United States Air Force where he developed and programmed command and control systems for the Strategic Air Command.

Michael received both his Bachelors and Masters degrees in Mathematics from the University of Missouri-Rolla, in 1971 and 1973, respectively.