DAVE WELCH - Country Manager, Japan. Mr. Welch has resided in Japan since retiring from the US Air Force in 1998. During Mr. Welch’s 20-year career in the Air Force, he served as a commissioned officer in the Security Police and as a Special Agent with the Air Force Office of Special Investigations (AFOSI). Mr. Welch has extensive experience in physical security, as well as criminal and counterintelligence investigations.

Mr. Welch was the senior AFOSI Special Agent in Saudi Arabia, but then became the Security/Counter Terrorism Advisor to the 2-Star General in-charge of the Joint Task Force Southwest Asia, which consisted of US, British, and French military forces, after the 1995 bombing of the Office of the Provost Marshall at the Saudi National Guard facility in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Since 1999, Mr. Welch has been the Japan country manager for a well-known international security consulting firm and he has also worked as the Security Director for two large multinational companies in Japan. During that time, he has conducted and supervised various executive protection details for company CEOs; written security policies and procedures; conducted crisis management drills and managed various complex internal investigations.

Mr. Welch is currently the co-head of the Overseas Security Advisory Council (OSAC) in Japan and holds a Masters Degree in Public Administration from the University of Oklahoma, as well as a Masters Degree in Linguistics from George Mason University in Virginia. His Bachelors Degree is in Criminal Justice from Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts.