The appointment was effective immediately. Chan replaces Melodie Mayberry-Stewart, who resigned on March 31. Chan previously served as CIO of New York State’s Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance, a post he had held since 2007.
The memo indicated Chan will be spearheading various changes in New York’s IT operations, based on results of an evaluation conducted to compare the department against industry best practices.
Chan was named the New York Public Sector CIO of the Year in 2008, for his work developing myBenefits, a website for the state’s families and community partners to connect with benefits services and work support through an e-government hub for human services. The annual award recognizes CIOs who demonstrate exemplary leadership, strategic vision, innovation and collaboration.
Chan’s use of open source technology in developing the myBenefits and myWorkspace applications also earned him an award by the Government Open Source Conference in 2010 in the category of Outstanding Deployment of Open Source Software.
Prior to public service, Chan was chief technologist at GE Infrastructure and worked on various U.S. space and defense programs as a research scientist with Boeing. He has a Ph.D. in aerospace engineering from the University of Southern California and a Master of Science degree, also in aerospace engineering, from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
