IE 11 Not Supported

For optimal browsing, we recommend Chrome, Firefox or Safari browsers.

Teresa Takai

CIO, Michigan

After a successful career in the private sector where she held senior positions and worked on international IT projects, Teresa Takai accepted Gov. Jennifer Granholm's invitation to serve as CIO and director of Michigan's new centralized IT structure. The Michigan Department of Information Technology has 1,800 employees and a new mission: to centralize IT operations and purchases in a year of fiscal challenges.


What is your IT agenda for Michigan?
The overall IT agenda for Michigan is first and foremost to make the new organization's structure work -- to provide the level of services to the agencies from a centralized organization that is satisfactory to them. That's our No.1 priority. Our No. 2 priority is to begin to demonstrate the benefits and the advantages of having a single IT organization. And with that, it's things like our ability to do cross-agency initiatives [and] our ability to really become involved in some of the governor's priority projects like education, like support of No Child Left Behind, like economic development -- which we believe is much better supported from an organization that looks across all IT areas in the state than it could from any single IT organization embedded in the agencies.


Will technology play a role in alleviating the state's deficit?
We are working very diligently to cut back and reduce our IT spending. That includes the normal things around working with the vendors. But the one advantage we have is now we are able to negotiate with our vendors across all state agencies, so we have much more leverage to work with them. The second thing is we are looking at opportunities where technology may help to streamline. We have to look at that carefully because streamlining, in our case, does not mean reducing or eliminating state jobs. It means making us more efficient and eliminating the need either to add people, add contractors or else being able to use the individuals to do other work for the state.


What is your greatest challenge?
I've got so many of them, it's hard to pick which one is my greatest. I think it's really a combination of being able to provide the specific services the agencies need while being able to provide statewide IT services at the lowest cost. Those two things often look like they are at opposite ends of our service, but in reality, I believe if we do it right we can do both. By being low-cost we are able to utilize some of our resources to be much more proactive.


What are your passions?
My passion, starting with the work I did in the private sector, is really around how do you take the technology and make a difference. It's been a strong interest to me to really bring that together. Coming into the public sector takes it to a whole new level. Your ability to actually use technology to impact the citizens of the state is an opportunity I think is unparalleled.

The other thing I find is a real passion for me is how I as a leader can make an impact on the individuals I work with. I know I remember every boss I ever had. They are a part of your career, and therefore, a part of your life. So I think it is really important as a leader to think about the positive impact you can have on a really large number of people. Since I have a new organization here, a passion for me is to make my time here a very positive experience for people who work in state government.