What does your experience as deputy chief of staff of the Governor's Office bring to your new line of work as Florida's CIO?
Being deputy chief of staff gives me a clear understanding of what the governor's vision is for the STO and how IT ought to be used in the state enterprise. I've come to understand his management style. I know what he expects from his agency heads. I know what his priorities are overall. It's a new job, a new role, but I'm really just in a different position on the same team.
How would you rank your IT expertise on a scale of one to 10?
I'm not a techie, to be sure. What I do have are some very talented and knowledgeable people on my staff to whom I'm able to turn to ask for their input, advice and expertise on IT matters as they relate to STO operations and to solutions that can and should be applied outside the STO.
Does it matter to you that you're not a techie? That seems to be the case with many new CIOs.
To the extent that we're seeing a trend away from uber-techie CIOs, it's probably owing to the need to bring in more business focus. It also demonstrates the importance of the IT function in strategic planning in organizations. If you have folks on your team with strong IT backgrounds, that to me is as good as -- if not better than -- having a CIO that's an