CIO Sightings

On Aug. 1, longtime Tennessee CIO Bill Ezell officially stepped down and was replaced by deputy CIO and state chief technology officer (CTO) Mark Bengel, who will run the Office of Information Resources. New state IT initiatives include a new data center, e-health, enterprise GIS and enterprise resource planning applications, and a strategic shift toward shared services.

Speaking of Tennessee, native son Dave Combs resigned as CIO of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. In 2005, Combs replaced by former Agriculture Department CIO Scott Charbo, who became CIO at the Department of Homeland Security.

In what appears to be a small trend among CIOs, three government IT executives recently announced new jobs in the private-sector consulting field as "sourcing advisers" to government clients. In July, Karl Kaiser resigned as CIO of Minneapolis and joined the consulting firm EquaTerra, which specializes in sourcing advisers who provide a "360-degree perspective" to IT government transformation issues.

On almost the same day, TPI, another sourcing advisory firm based in Houston, announced that Larry Olson, former Texas CTO, and Michael Moore, former CIO of San Diego County, had joined the firm's public-sector practice. Olson told Government Technology his new role will be to focus on excellence in the public sector and "help look at opportunities to strengthen the public enterprise."

The Mile-High City has a new CIO. Molly Rauzi, former acting CIO for the city and county of Denver, received the permanent appointment from Mayor John Hickenlooper. Rauzi was hired by CIO Mike Locatis, who later moved out to take over as CIO at the statehouse. Her career includes the job of CIO at the Denver International Airport.

Derek Roh, director of IT Services for Baldwin County Public Schools in Loxley, Ala., was awarded the David T. Kearns Public School CIO of the Year Award, which recognizes the top public school CIOs who are making significant contributions to improve academic achievement and administrative process.

In other transitions, Michael Wash, CTO of the U.S. Government Printing Office is now CIO.

CIO magazine cited the following government CIOs for their excellence as part of its annual CIO 100 awards program: Randy Headrick, Air National Guard; David Behen, Washtenaw County, Mich.; Joseph Kraus, U.S. Government Accountability Office; John Nickles, Kane County, Ill.; Robert Taylor, Fulton County, Ga.; Mark Greer, Defense Intelligence Agency; Vance Hitch, U.S. Department of Justice; Peter Schlusser, Suffolk County, N.Y.; Charles Church, U.S. Department of Homeland Security; and Jack Belcher, Arlington County, Va.

Winners were chosen for their willingness to embrace IT innovation as a tool for transformation, and were judged based on IT projects that were motivated by a critical business need, as well as their conviction that technology-enabled change can create new value.