Florida Announces David W. Taylor as Interim State CIO; Louisiana Appoints Edward Driesse as New CIO

Federal News:
W. Hord Tipton, former CIO of the U.S. Department of Interior, was appointed executive director of (ISC)2, the nonprofit organization for educating and certifying information security professionals. Tipton was the Interior's CIO for five years before leaving in 2007 to become president and CEO of Ironman Technologies. Tipton will be in charge of an organization that has certified 60,000 IT security professionals in 135 countries.
Robert Shea, associate director for management at the Office of Management and Budget, has joined Grant Thornton's public-sector group. Danny Harris, the U.S. Education Department's deputy chief financial officer, will also be the department's acting CIO.

State News:
Florida announced the appointment of David W. Taylor as interim state CIO. Taylor has served since March 2003 as the CIO and IT director of the Florida Department of Health.

Louisiana has appointed Edward Driesse its CIO, replacing Rizwan Ahmed, who resigned. Driesse has 15 years experience as a CIO in various organizations. His last position was CIO of the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals. As state CIO, Driesse will head the Office of Information Technology and reports to the commissioner of the Division of Administration within the Office of Gov. Bobby Jindal.

Delaware CIO Tom Jarrett testified before Congress on IT project management, according to NASCIO's Web site. An archived webcast is available from the Senate Subcommittee.

In other news from NASCIO: Nebraska CIO Brenda Decker presented a plenary address at the Intergovernmental Preparedness for Essential Records Summit on Essential Records and Emergency Preparedness on July 21-22 in Atlanta. Minnesota CIO Gopal Khanna served on a panel regarding effective statewide IT policy at the National Conference of State Legislatures' Legislative Summit on July 22. Georgia CIO Patrick Moore spoke on state IT trends at the Association of Government Accountants' 57th annual Professional Development Conference and Exposition in Atlanta July 27-30.

Local News:
Austin, Texas, CIO Pete Collins resigned. Earlier in the year, Collins was accused by a city employee of misusing city property. The allegations were investigated by police who declined to prosecute. Collins, who has been on administrative leave since June, was named Texas CIO of the Year by Government Technology magazine., A former police officer, Collins was CIO since 2004. The city has not named a permanent replacement.