David Vance is the former President of Caterpillar University, which he founded in 2001. Until his retirement in January 2007, he was responsible for ensuring that the right education, training and leadership were provided to achieve corporate goals and efficiently meet the learning needs of Caterpillar and dealer employees. Prior to this position, Dave was Chief Economist and Head of the Business Intelligence Group at Caterpillar Inc. with responsibility for economic outlooks, sales forecasts, market research, competitive analysis and business information systems.

Dave now consults with organizations on learning and performance issues with a particular focus on launching corporate universities and designing effective strategies for managing the learning function including alignment, governance, organization and measurement. His firm is Manage Learning LLC. Dave is a frequent speaker at learning conferences and association meetings. He also conducts workshops on managing the learning function, and starting a corporate university or redefining an existing training department.

Dave received his Bachelor of Science Degree in Political Science from M.I.T. in 1974, a Master of Science Degree in Business Administration from Indiana University (South Bend) in 1983, and a PhD in Economics from the University of Notre Dame in 1988.  After pursuing various "personal growth" experiences such as house builder, traveler and YMCA camp director, he joined a medium-sized consulting firm in 1980 where he was economist and financial manager until 1984.  He also was an economics and statistics instructor at Indiana University from 1983-1987.  Dave joined Caterpillar in 1987 as an economist.

He is a member and former Director & Treasurer of ASTD (American Society for Training and Development). He is President of the local ASTD chapter (Northern Rockies Chapter in Fort Collins) and President of the Windsor-Severance Library Board of Trustees. He is also a trustee and lead independent director for State Farm Mutual Funds.  Dave was named 2006 CLO of the Year by CLO Magazine.  He also was named 2004 Corporate University Leader of the Year by the International Quality and Productivity Council in their annual CUBIC (Corporate University Best in Class) Awards.

Dave, his wife Barbara and their two dogs live in Windsor, Colorado where they moved after retiring from Caterpillar. (Windsor is near Fort Collins and about an hour north of Denver.)  

Caterpillar was ranked number 1 in the 2005 ASTD Best Awards and was ranked Best Overall Corporate University in 2004 by both Corporate University Xchange and the International Quality and Productivity Council. During Dave’s tenure Cat U was also honored with numerous other awards including many in the measurement and alignment arenas.

Dave’s current research focuses on bringing economic and business rigor to the learning field as well as the development of computer-based simulations to help learning professionals increase their effectiveness and efficiency. He is writing a book on managing the learning function to be published in late 2010.The working title is The Business of Learning: Managing the Corporate Training Function for Results. Emerald Group Publishing recently recognized Dave’s 2008 article “Manage Learning without Apology: An Economist’s Perspective” as one of three Highly Commended Award winners for the journal Industrial and Commercial Training.