Virginia CIO Phil Wittmer Steps Away After One Month

About a month since taking the role of Virginia’s chief information officer, Phil Wittmer has announced he’s stepping down, according to the Richmond Times-Dispatch.

Gov. Glenn Youngkin appointed Wittmer on Jan. 21 to replace former CIO Nelson Moe, who stepped down after six years in the position.

Moe oversaw the shift away from “mega contracts” to more flexible deals with vendors, along with addressing pandemic-induced IT challenges and creating new performance metrics for state IT work.

Wittmer was expected to pick up where Moe left off, helping the governor “build on our Day One initiatives to restore excellence in education, make our communities safer and open Virginia for business,” Youngkin said at the time in a statement.

Before working with the Virginia Information Technologies Agency (VITA), Wittmer was Kansas’ chief information technology officer from July 2015 through February 2018.

Prior to that, he held several private-sector roles, such as director of consulting services for RSM US LLP, chief information officer for Polsinelli Shughart and program director and partner for CSC Consulting.