Government Technology research on state CIOs (last published in June 2019) revealed just how likely it is that a CIO will survive a transition to a new governor: When a new governor is of the same political party as the last, there is a 39 percent chance the CIO will remain. At last week's NASCIO conference in Louisville, Ky., however, several gov tech leaders pointed out that oftentimes, the end of an elected official's term is just a good time to explore different career opportunities — it doesn't necessarily mean they're out of sync with the new leadership.
We asked Arizona Chief Information Officer J.R. Sloan how he ensures stability in the work of his department despite potential leadership changes and where the state's next CIO is coming from.
"My observations are that a lot of IT leadership across the state of Arizona will survive that process," Sloan said, noting that he doesn't anticipate leaving his post any time soon. "They’ve been in place, many of them have gone through one or two administrations, so we have good, solid, stable leadership in place."
