David F. Welch co-founded Infinera and currently serves as President and as a member of the Board of Directors. Previously, he was CTO and VP Corporate Development at SDL. Dr. Welch holds over 130 patents in optical transmission technologies, and has authored over 300 technical publications in the same field. In recognition of his technical contributions to the optical industry, he has been awarded the Optical Society of America’s Adolph Lomb Medal, Joseph Fraunhofer Award and John Tyndall Award, and the UK-based Institution of Engineering and Technology’s JJ Thompson Medal for Achievement in Electronics. He is a Fellow of the OSA and the IEEE. In 2011, Dr. Welch founded Students Matter, a national non-profit organization dedicated to sponsoring impact litigation to promote access to quality public education. The victory in its first case, Vergara v. California, gained national attention. He holds a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Delaware and a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Cornell University.