He confirmed the move to Government Technology Monday and said he plans to consult and advise in the private sector after some 20 years working inside local and state government. Beach has acted as the state's top IT official since the departure of CIO Eric Larson in early 2019. The CIO spot has remained vacant since that time.
The deputy CIO role and the Division of State Technology (DST) formed earlier this year after Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill into law reorganizing IT services and reshaping the existing Agency for State Technology. Beach was appointed to the newly created position when DST launched in July.
“Florida is a large and diverse state with many challenges,” Beach said in a statement. “It will always be important to optimize the way the state delivers enterprise IT in order to best provide the services citizens expect.”
Beach said he has been a proponent of the CIO-as-a-broker model to help agencies find a vendor solution that best suits their needs for on-premises and cloud infrastructure. As the state’s departments have moved more toward cloud services, Beach said he and his team established governance, best practices and strategy for adoption.
Drew Richardson, deputy CIO of the Department of Management Services (DMS), will serve as interim deputy state CIO. It is unknown at this time how a permanent replacement will be selected. As part of the recent IT reorganization, DST falls under the purview of DMS.
“It has been my honor to serve in this role under Gov. DeSantis’ bold leadership and attention to innovation,” Beach said.
