Interview: Haden Land

Haden Land, a cyber security and IT senior executive consultant who provides support to government agencies, allied nations, and regulated commercial industries, became chairman of the Capitol Technology University Board of Trustees on July 1. He takes the helm during a time of rapid transition at the university, which has moved swiftly to establish new programs, expand enrollment, increase Capitol’s visibility in the higher education marketplace, and build out the university campus.

Mr. Land retired in 2015 after a long career as an executive at Lockheed Martin. As Vice President of Research and Technology for the technology giant’s Information Systems and Global Solutions division, Land was responsible for technical solutions, strategic partnerships, global innovation centers, research and development, and emerging technology planning. 

A highly sought-after global speaker and active philanthropist, Mr. Land has been selected eight times as one of the Top Hispanics in Business and Technology by Hispanic Engineer and Information Technology magazine; thrice named a Most Influential Hispanic by the Hispanic Information Technology Executive Council; received the prestigious Global CIO Executive Top 10 Breakaway Leader award; and received the Minerva Award for professional lifetime achievement. He holds an honorary doctoral degree in Science from Potsdam University, and received an honorary doctor degree in Humane Letters from Capitol Technology University.  

In the following interview, Mr. Land shares some of his priorities as board chairman and talks about the road ahead for Capitol as the university positions itself to meet the needs of a quickly evolving, tech-driven global economy. 

Could you tell us a little about yourself?

My educational background is in computer science and mathematics, including undergraduate and graduate degrees; I also have some education in psychology. Professionally, my career spans thirty-five years of professional experience, half of that as chief engineer, chief scientist, or chief architect, and then in the latter half being an executive – an engineering executive, CIO, CTO and the like. I’ve worked for Lockheed Martin, IBM, and Loral.

I’ve served on numerous boards: technical boards, academic boards, and diversity boards. 

What are some of the most rewarding aspects of your chosen field?

I’ve had the opportunity to help solve some of the most challenging problems faced by our country and allies, whether in government operations or military-related situations. I’ve been very active as a senior leader, working very hands-on at the highest levels on very complex problems, and this has been extremely rewarding.

Other work includes the rollout of new concepts and ideas, and influencing education trends, both through my professional work and through my private work in support of boards and various institutions. 

In my spare time, I enjoy family and friends.  I’m a sports memorabilia collector, I play golf, play chess, and love going to professional sporting events. 

You’re taking the helm as Board of Trustees chairman at a time of accelerated growth and transformation at Capitol. What are some of your priorities?

I will answer that question in two parts. One is from the perspective of the board itself, and secondly from the perspective of the university.

From the board’s perspective, I’m really focused on our adherence to effective governance and consistent membership guidelines and expectations. We are rolling out, effective this month, membership guidelines that all trustees will sign and follow. I also have a high interest in expanding the board’s size by roughly 25% so that we have fully operational committees, so they can do their work effectively. As part of that process, we’ll be seeking candidates who are consistent with the newer markets that we’re positioning for, and also making a focused effort on looking at diversity – bringing more minorities and women onto the board, and also having some representation by Millennials down the stream.

Lastly, I’d like to see us leverage and highlight the board members’ backgrounds and successes more, to better promote the university through our networks.

From the university perspective, I believe we need to grow our assets through more aggressive and creative fundraising. We need to increase our student enrollment; there are a number of positioning exercises and activities that we’ve taken this year, and we should start to see a growing enrollment trend starting next year. I’d like for us to be more creative in establishing strategies and partnerships with corporations. We definitely want to increase our asynchronous course offerings, so we can better position ourselves for the military market, in particular. 

We have a new residence hall that is opening in the fall of 2018. Beyond that, I’d like to see us continue with a methodical, well-planned campus expansion, where appropriate.

I’m really pleased with the new leadership team we now have at Capitol. I ran the presidential search that got us Dr. Brad Sims, and he’s doing a great job. Dr. Sims brings an excellent balance of business and academia to the thought processes and decisions that go into leading a university. His background includes professional and business experience as well as increasing roles in academia. He’s also demonstrated a solid understanding of process improvement, performance management, and risk management, all of which are critical, and he’s a very good listener. Since the start of his tenure at Capitol, he’s shown that he can build and lead a high-performance team. 

What do you see as Capitol’s distinctive strengths? What is our differentiator in the crowded, competitive higher education arena?

We have one of the better professor-student ratios within the programs and offerings that are in our portfolio. Most of our peer institutions have fewer professors and more students. Our location, in the Washington, DC metro area, is a plus. The degrees and programs that are our bread and butter are very relevant to the markets in this region. We have a high-performing, new leadership team. I’m really pleased with their aggressive, performance-based work ethic. That is a distinct advantage compared to some other institutions. In addition, we’ve been able to remain affordable in the markets we serve. We’re somewhere in the middle of that band and we’ve kept a diligent eye on the cost. 

Where do you see us going? How should Capitol best position itself in this rapidly changing economy?

We’ve got to stay relevant. Over the next two years, you’re going to see a dozen or more new degrees and programs being rolled out. A number have already received authorization to proceed, while others are in the cycle. We’re also looking at enhancing existing programs and, of course, halting underperforming programs. Optimizing Capitol’s portfolio is key to where we’re headed.

While we need to stay focused and position ourselves well for on-campus education, we also really need to be ahead of the competition in terms of getting the most out of online education. That’s a trend that we see out there, and it’s driven by the way people’s lives are changing. We have a number of course already that are being converted to an online, asynchronous format. There are a number of initiatives under way to better position ourselves in new markets as well as existing markets that we haven’t been able to tap into as well in the past.

You have earned public recognition for your efforts to promote diversity in STEM fields. Do you see things going in the right direction?

I have seen the needle move in terms of executive placement. I do see more minority students attending STEM degree programs; however, I think we still need to do more to encourage women to enter these fields. 

You’re also known as an advocate for the concept of STEAM. What does this mean and why is it important?

The “A” in STEAM refers to arts and humanities. These fields are characterized by divergent thinking, a process in which students are presented with a concept and then asked to explore or expand on the concept.  Conversely, STEM (without the A) fields have historically been characterized by convergent thinking, where students are given a problem and they apply a set of known concepts to produce the correct answer. I’ve done a lot of work in adaptive sciences, in evolving fields like neuromorphic architecture, biomimicry, quantum computing and machine learning, and data science, and all of these fields require someone who can do both convergent and divergent thinking.