“Sam Nixon is a public servant of the highest caliber,” Gov. Terry McAuliffe said in a statement. “As Virginia’s chief information officer, he helped transform Virginia’s information technology regime into a modern and effective system befitting of the taxpayers it serves."
When Nixon joined the agency in 2010, he became the state’s third CIO in nine months, taking charge of a sputtering IT outsourcing deal valued at $2.3 billion.
A career politician, Nixon brought his knowledge of government and his working relationships to effect change in the notoriously intractable environment known as state government. Among his accomplishments, Nixon collaborated to create a cross-agency identity management platform that earned the project a spot in Government Technology’s 2014 Top 25 Doers, Dreamers & Drivers.
Nixon's successor has not yet been found, and the governor’s office is now conducting a search, according to a spokesperson.
