Year in Review 2022: State and Local Tech Chiefs on the Move

Chief information officers, technology officers, security officers, data officers — these are the titles held by the people who helm public-sector IT shops across the country. Here we track those tech chiefs at states, cities and counties who tackled new roles or moved on from public service in the past year.

JANUARY

Wyoming named Bill Vajda as its new chief information officer, with Vajda having previously served in the same role for Alaska. 

Carrie Bishop, who was San Francisco’s inaugural chief digital services officer, departed that role after a stint that spanned nearly five years. Bishop was succeeded in the role by Cyd Harrell, a 25-year veteran technologist with a deep background in the public and nonprofit sectors.

Virginia CIO Nelson Moe, who held the position for six years, left the state after a new governor was elected and joined the private-sector IT firm Iron Bow Technologies. He was briefly replaced by former Kansas IT chief Phil Wittmer, who left after just one month in the role. In April, Virginia transportation head Robert Osmond took over the post. Jonathan Ozovek, the deputy CIO and chief operating officer for the Virginia Information Technologies Agency, also left the state after Moe.

FEBRUARY

California Gov. Gavin Newsom appointed the state’s longtime CIO Amy Tong to become secretary of the California Government Operations Agency. The CIO position was held in an interim capacity by deputy CIO Russ Nichols until it was filled permanently by CTO Liana Bailey-Crimmins in June. Nichols then announced he would retire from state service in November.

Miami’s chief information officer and director of innovation and technology, Mike Sarasti, departed that role, which he had held since 2016. He was succeeded as CIO later in the year by Gee Chow. 

North Carolina named Carol Burroughs its permanent chief data officer, a position she’d held on an interim basis since October 2021.

Nigel Jacob departed from Boston’s Office of New Urban Mechanics, an agency he co-founded, in order to help bring the concept to other cities nationwide. He’s doing that work at Northeastern University’s Burnes Center for Social Change and Innovation.

MARCH

Froilan Roy C. Fernando was named Cleveland’s chief innovation and technology officer, bringing a wide variety of public-sector experience to the role.

New Mexico appointed Annie Winterfield Manriquez as the governor’s senior adviser for cybersecurity and critical infrastructure, a position aimed at bolstering cybersecurity for the state.

Washington CISO Vinod Brahmapuram left state service in order to take a role with Lumen Technologies, a Fortune 500 company. Ralph Johnson was tapped to replace him in November.

Boston appointed Santiago Garces as CIO, bringing to the job experience leading tech work in Pittsburgh as well as South Bend, Ind. Around the same time, Julia Gutierrez was picked as Boston’s chief digital officer, overseeing the city’s website, Boston 311 mobile app and other citizen-facing projects.

San Jose, Calif., tapped Khaled Tawfik as the city’s CIO, the position that Rob Lloyd vacated last year when he was promoted to deputy city manager.

APRIL

The Virginia Office of Data Governance and Analytics announced that longtime finance security executive Ken Pfeil would take on the chief data officer role, replacing former CDO Carlos Rivero.

Ray Yepes was named Colorado’s chief information security officer, a role previously held by Deborah Blyth, who left state service in 2021.

San Mateo County, Calif., tapped Mike Wentworth to fill its CIO spot, with Wentworth having worked for the county dating back to 1996. He had been serving in the job on an interim basis since 2021, when he took over for longtime CIO Jon Walton.

Minnesota IT appointed Kimberly Maturo-Hilt as its chief business technology officer. She brings a mix of public and private experience to the role.

North Dakota named Greg Hoffman, previously the Information Technology Department’s finance director and director of administrative services, as its deputy state CIO.

San Diego County, Calif., picked David Smith as its next CIO. Smith now heads up the IT department for California’s second most populous county.

After vacating New York City’s CIO position when a new mayor took office in January, Jessica Tisch was tapped to lead the city’s sanitation department.

Gov tech veteran Krista Canellakis joined the nonprofit group U.S. Digital Response following stints with California and San Francisco.

Ohio appointed Kirk Herath as cybersecurity strategic adviser within the DeWine administration, which was a newly created post. Herath previously served as chairman of the CyberOhio Advisory Board.

MAY

 The Delaware Department of Technology and Information added a pair of key hires to its ranks: Jordan Schulties as chief of administration and Tammy Shelton as broadband infrastructure grant program manager.

Tony Batalla was appointed CIO of Oakland, Calif., after previously holding the role in Santa Cruz County, Calif., as well as the CTO position in San Leandro, Calif.

Raleigh, N.C., CIO Sindhu Menon left her position to become CIO of Harris County, Texas, which is home to Houston. Menon previously served as CIO of College Station, Texas. Raleigh CISO Rob Reynolds took over as CIO there on an interim basis, before the city hired Mark Wittenburg away from his post in Tempe, Ariz., in September.

Tanya Acevedo, who had previously held a number of public-sector tech leadership roles across the country, joined Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority in Austin, Texas, as its new CIO and senior vice president.

Bob Leek was named CIO of Clark County, Nev., having previously served as deputy CIO since February 2021. Leek has more than three decades of public- and private-sector tech experience.

Memphis, Tenn., appointed Wendy Harris as IT director, a position she had held on an interim basis for over a year. 

The New York State Office of Information Technology Services appointed cybersecurity veteran Chris DeSain as state chief information security officer. DeSain brings 24 years of security experience to the role. New York also appointed Colin Ahern as the state’s first-ever chief cyber officer.

JUNE

Kurt Peterson was named CIO in Chicago, after serving the city in varying roles since 2011. The city also appointed its first-ever chief technology officer in Nick Lucius, who had served as CDO for the past two years.

Nevada named Timothy Galluzi as CIO after the position had been vacant for seven months. Galluzi previously served as the head of the state’s enterprise systems.

New Mexico tapped Peter Mantos as the secretary of the state’s Department of Information Technology, making him the leader of the state’s IT work.

Orange County, Calif., CIO Joel Golub departed the position to take an executive role in Oracle’s Industry Strategy and Executive Outreach group. Kc Roestenberg was later appointed as Golub’s replacement. In addition, the county hired longtime technologist Ed Althof as its assistant CIO and chief technology officer.

Chula Vista, Calif., hired Jose Cisneros as its new IT director. Cisneros came to the job from the U.S. Navy, replacing Edward Chew III.

David Mendel was named interim chief information officer for King County, Wash., replacing former CIO Tanya Hannah, who stepped down from the role May 1.

JULY

Former Chief Information Security Officer with the Louisiana Office of Technology Services Dustin Glover took on a new role as the state’s overall chief cyber officer.

Rick Klau stepped down as California’s chief technology innovation officer and leader of the Office of Enterprise Technology in the state’s Department of Technology. Klau had held the position dating back to February 2021.

Sharon Kennedy Vickers departed her role as CIO of St. Paul, Minn., for a new position with Software for Good, which develops web and mobile apps for spurring environmental and social change. She was replaced in October by Jamie Wascalus, at which time Stefanie Hovath was also named the city’s CISO.

Anushree Bag, executive director of enterprise governance, risk and compliance and resiliency services with the Indiana Office of Technology, announced that she was departing for a position as CIO of the Indiana Department of Child Services.

Rochester, N.Y., named William Boudreaux its new chief technology officer after he had served in that position in an acting capacity since January 2022.

Iowa lifted the interim tag off of Matt Behrens as the state’s CIO, a position he held dating back to late 2021. Behrens has more than 20 years of experience in Iowa state government spread across a number of roles, including deputy CIO.

Miguel Gamiño Jr. — a public-sector tech vet who most prominently served as chief technology officer for New York City and CIO for San Francisco — took a new role as the chief experience officer and founding partner at Simplicity Technology, a Silicon Valley-based startup aimed at bettering relationships between government and constituents. 

Former Michigan CIO David Behen — who held the position for six years before departing in 2017 — reunited with former Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder to form a cybersecurity company called SensCy.

AUGUST

Evanston, Ill., CIO Luke Stowe was named city manager there, a position he had held in an acting capacity since July. 

Longtime Georgia Chief Technology Officer Steve Nichols stepped down to take on a new job with Gartner Consulting, having served with the state for 20 years. He was replaced by Dmitry Kagansky, who was previously Georgia’s first chief cloud officer.

Arlington County, Va., CIO Jack Belcher transitioned to a new role as chief technology innovation officer. Arlington County’s Deputy CIO Norron Lee stepped up to take over the CIO position.

Round Rock, Texas, a suburb of Austin, appointed Ramsey Saad as its CIO following the retirement of Heath Douglas, who had held the job for 22 years.

Mark Headd — a gov tech veteran who most prominently served as chief data officer for Philadelphia — took a position as a tech subject matter expert with Ad Hoc, a private company that helps public agencies improve digital service delivery.

SEPTEMBER

Rhode Island CIO and Chief Digital Officer Bijay Kumar departed state service to return to the private sector. The state’s CISO, Brian Tardiff, took over Kumar’s role in an interim capacity.

Santa Barbara County, Calif., tapped private-sector IT veteran Chris Chirgwin as its next CIO.

Vermont CIO John Quinn departed state service for a new role in the private sector. Quinn served in the position for five years, leaving to take a new role with the public procurement advisory firm Government Sourcing Solutions. Shawn Nailor, Quinn’s deputy, was tapped to lead the agency on an interim basis.

Texas Chief Data Officer Ed Kelly announced his retirement following his third year as the state CDO and his seventh with the Texas Department of Information Resources.

Wake County, N.C., hired Jonathan Feldman as CIO. Feldman previously served as the CIO for Asheville, N.C.

Joshua Edmonds departed as Detroit’s digital inclusion director for a position as CEO of DigitalC, a Cleveland-based nonprofit focused on getting people connected to high-speed, affordable Internet. Edmonds was named to that job in Detroit in January 2019, making him one of the first full-time digital inclusion staffers in any American city hall.

Gabe Klein, a veteran of big city transportation departments and private consulting, was named the head of the federal Joint Office of Energy and Transportation, charged with overseeing the buildout of some 500,000 high-speed public chargers across the nation, among other projects.

Reno, Nev., appointed Craig Franden to its Department of Information Technology director position. Franden, who brings more than 20 years of public IT work to the role, replaced Kannaiah Vadlakunta.

Nashville hired Pearl Amanfu as the city’s first ever digital inclusion officer. Amanfu had been with the city since 2016, previously serving as a project manager, a capacity in which she worked on digital inclusion projects.

OCTOBER

Michael Aldridge departed his position as CIO of Lawrence, Kan., to join the business development consulting firm Gartner as the senior director analyst in business continuity management and cyber risk management.

Idaho appointed Alberto Gonzalez as the state’s new administrator of the Office of Information Technology Services. Gonzalez replaced Jeff Weak in the role. Idaho CISO Keith Tresh also retired. 

Maryland added two new high-level cybersecurity roles: Former Howard County CISO John Bruns was tapped as director of state cybersecurity, while emergency management specialist Netta Squires was named the state’s director of local cybersecurity.

Pennsylvania CISO Erik Avakian announced his departure from the role. Avakian spent 16 years with Pennsylvania, with 12 years of that time as CISO. He left the job for the private sector. Soon after, the state’s longtime CIO John MacMillan annouced he would leave his post in mid-November after seven years in the role. Patti Chapman, CIO for the state’s Integrated Enterprise System, was named acting CIO upon his departure.

Minnesota appointed Bree Maki as the director of the state’s broadband development office. Maki previously worked on broadband issues in her capacity as senior outreach director for Sen. Tina Smith of Minnesota, and she replaced Angie Dickison in the role.

Oklahoma CISO Matt Singleton left state service for the private sector after over three years in the role. As of press time, his replacement had not been announced.

Gov. Gavin Newsom named several new senior officials to the California Department of Technology (CDT), including CTO Suzie Changus, previously CIO for the state’s prison authority. Jonathan Porat was also named CDT’s chief technology innovation officer after several years with the city of Seattle.

Maine announced Ken Boykin as its new chief data officer, a position that had been vacant since 2019. Boykin was most recently an information security manager for the state’s Department of Labor.

NOVEMBER

David Allen stepped down from his role as Georgia CISO, a position he held since April 2019. Deputy CISO Mike Davis took over in an interim capacity while a permanent replacement is found.

DECEMBER

North Dakota CIO Shawn Riley departed his position after nearly six years of service with the state, taking a role in the private sector as the new CEO of American operations with Bitzero International. Deputy CIO Greg Hoffman was appointed as Riley’s replacement in an interim capacity.