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Appointment of California's OTech Director Ron Hughes Confirmed

The California Senate Rules Committee unanimously voted to confirm Hughes' appointment, and the confirmation will advance to the Senate floor for final approval by majority vote.

On Wednesday, March 13, the California Senate Rules Committee unanimously voted to confirm the appointment of Office of Technology Services (OTech) Director Ron Hughes.

Hughes, who was appointed by Gov. Edmund G. Brown, Jr. on March 20, 2012, was approved  by a vote of 5-0.

“Ron brings an extraordinary combination of private sector experience and more than 20 years of California government and technology environment experience,” said California Technology Agency Secretary Carlos Ramos in a California Technology Agency blog post. “He has literally designed, built and operated data centers from the ground up, in California and all over the world.”

The confirmation hearing centered on Hughes’ experience of 22 years in state government and 12 years in the private sector.

The hearing also included committee members’ concerns about failed state IT projects, most notably the recent suspensions of the DMV’s IT Modernization Project and the MyCalPAYS system. Hughes said that California is becoming “more progressive” in creating shared services across different departments and in engaging with Silicon Valley to adopt best practices.

“We think his balanced background in the public and private sector will serve him well as the director, and he’s also shown great business acumen and personnel leadership,” said TechAmerica’s Robert Callahan, who testified in support of Hughes.

The confirmation will now advance to the Senate floor for final approval by majority vote.

OTech is one of the three offices of the California Technology Agency and provides IT services including networking, computing and training.

This story was originally published by Techwire.net

Photo by Jessica Mulholland