I recently had a great day with many officials in Colorado. State CIO, Mike Locatis, is in for a ride after the new IT consolidation legislation passed in May. Senate Bill 155 was sponsored by a bipartisan group of legislators. This bill was led by prime sponsors Senators Bill Cadman and John Morse and Reps. Andy Kerr and Bernie Buescher. Senator Cadman has been a long-time friend of the Center and a regular attendee at our annual leadership retreat, Re:Public. Senator, we applaud your IT leadership.
According to Colorado Governor Bill Ritter, "This legislation marks a historic turning point in how we will manage, consolidate and improve our IT assets and personnel. We are going to establish Colorado as a leader in the delivery of Information Technology. We are going to create an environment where innovation is a daily occurrence, and where every resident, business and visitor benefits from those innovations."
This is a huge change for Colorado. Several states have made this sometimes painful transition. All eyes will now be on Colorado. Mike Locatis is a tremendous leader and demonstrated great skill in his job as CIO of Denver. He is dynamic and enthusiastic and has his work cut out for him. I was able to spend time with Mike and his deputy and the whole organization is extremely excited about the opportunity.
Colorado also recently launched a new portal. I was able to hang out with some fabulous developers and experience the rogue nature of mash-ups while finding meandering XML tags for the taking. They had a wonderful dinner while I was there and I met with many state officials. The bottom line of this post is that Colorado is serious about IT. I was really quite impressed and recommend that you all pay attention to the opportunities in this state and the IT leadership.
One sad note for Colorado and happy note for California -- Mark Weatherford (state CISO) is leaving Colorado to become the Chief Information Security Officer for California.
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