College of Engineering (CoE) dean and Southern Company chair Gary S. May has announced the appointment of Professor Douglas B. Williams as the College’s new associate dean for administration and finance, effective August 1. Williams takes over the position from Associate Professor John Leonard, who is departing Georgia Tech to assume the position of executive associate dean and professor, School of Engineering, at Virginia Commonwealth University.

Williams is currently senior associate chair for the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE), a position he has held since 2012. He joined ECE in 1989 as an assistant professor, and he is affiliated with the Center for Signal and Image Processing. He received his bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees in electrical and computer engineering from Rice University in 1984, 1987, and 1989. Williams has previously served as interim ECE school chair.

“I would like to personally thank Doug for agreeing to take on this important responsibility for the College,” said May. “Please join me in lending Doug our support as he assumes this new role, which is vitally important to the well-being of the College. I would also like to thank John Leonard for his years of dedicated service in this position. John brought a high level of analytical and data support into CoE’s financial administration, which became foundational for budgetary decision making.”