Oklahoma CIO Alex Pettit Will Resign to Become Oregon CIO

Oklahoma CIO Alex Pettit will resign his post effective Jan. 3, 2014 to become CIO of Oregon, according to sources in his office. Pettit has had a long career in public-sector IT, including a stint as CIO of Denton, Texas.

In 2010, Oklahoma Gov. Brad Henry appointed Pettit as the state’s first CIO. Pettit served on the governor’s cabinet, and was reappointed by Gov. Mary Fallin in 2011. Pettit supervised Oklahoma’s statewide IT consolidation initiative that centralized IT resources from nearly 80 different data centers, and in a recent video interview, Pettit gave a tour of the state’s data center and consolidation efforts, which include an ambitious plan to share services with local governments.

Pettit will succeed Oregon CIO Dugan Petty, who retired last October. Petty is now a senior fellow at the Center for Digital Government, a part of e.Republic, Government Technology’s parent company.