The position will focus on the convergence of strategy, product management, business architecture, as well as marketing and communications, Richman told Government Technology.
Richman, whose first day in the role was Monday, has spent the last two years working for the city of Boulder, Colo., where she started as its chief innovation and analytics officer, before being promoted to chief technology officer.
Working with the city helped prepare her for her work at OIT, she said, because of the focus on modernization and leadership where it came to service delivery — from back-end infrastructure to front-end customer service.
“Julia Richman’s wide range of experience from the public and private sectors will be instrumental in developing and evolving a strategic framework that delivers customer delight,” state CIO Theresa Szczurek said in a statement.
Before her tenure in the public sector, she also worked for nearly a decade with Deloitte Consulting, where she was a senior manager working on projects with federal, state and local governments that focused on business and service operations strategies.
Richman is the first strategy officer for the state in several years. Colorado previously filled a strategy officer position between 2014 and 2016, but the post was not renewed.
She graduated from Dartmouth College with a BA in government and English. She holds a master’s degree in public policy analysis from Harris School of Public Policy at the University of Chicago.