Toner was first appointed to the role in 2015 by former Gov. Pete Ricketts, who selected him based on his private-sector IT experience, which included serving as IT director of global infrastructure operations at First Data Corp. and several leadership roles with TD Ameritrade. He took over the role from former CIO Brenda Decker, another longtime CIO for the state who served for about a decade.
Toner’s last day with the state is slated to be Feb. 16, at which time Mark Neeman — who currently serves as a deputy with the Office of the Chief Information Officer (OCIO) — will take the helm as interim CIO. He will serve in this capacity during the transition until a new CIO is appointed by newly elected Gov. Jim Pillen.
During his time with the state, Toner pushed state government IT forward in numerous ways, starting with a three-phase consolidation effort to bring IT services under the OCIO’s purview, and in recent years, connecting various state IT data and services into a unified cloud tool.
“We had to remove any tasks that were no longer adding value,” Toner told Government Technology in November 2023 regarding the approach to change management in the work to consolidate the state’s IT services.
Other significant undertakings for Toner include the state’s shift to a single sign-on portal to make accessing government easier, adopting an agile development strategy to recruit millennials in the state workforce, and exploring evolving technologies in the security space.
In the announcement, Pillen thanked him for his years of service and offered best wishes for his future endeavors. A national search will begin immediately, headed by the executive search firm Ford Webb Associates.
