Gov. Schwarzenegger Appoints California's First State CIO;
AeA Celebrates Involvement in Bill Creating the Position

Sacramento, CA and Washington, DC (December 6, 2007) - Today, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger announced the appointment of Teresa (Teri) Takai as California's first Cabinet-level Chief Information Officer (CIO). This position was created by a bill sponsored by AeA at the behest of its members long frustrated by their inability to offer IT products and services to the government overseeing the world's sixth largest economy.

"This is a significant achievement for California and our member companies," said Roxanne Gould, Senior Vice President, CA Government & Public Affairs. "AeA actively pursued this piece of legislation because the high-tech industry believes an empowered State CIO will have the ability to make California less risk averse where buying technology is concerned. Given the sheer size of California, and its tradition of enacting path-breaking legislation, we are very excited to have been the impetus for this milestone accomplishment."

Since 2003, Takai has served as director of the Michigan Department of Information Technology (MDIT), where she also serves as the state's chief information officer. In this position, she has restructured and consolidated Michigan's resources by merging the state's information technology into one centralized department to service 19 agencies and over 1,700 employees. Additionally, during her tenure at the MDIT, Takai has led the state to being ranked number one four years in a row in digital government by the Center for Digital Government.

"AeA looks forward to working with Ms. Takai in streamlining California's IT procurements. Her proven track record as Michigan's State CIO speaks for itself," added Gould.

California state government, with an annual technology budget of several billion dollars, is one of the largest potential purchasers of technology in the world. AeA members have for years sought a California Chief Information Officer (CIO) with real statutory, enterprise-wide authority to facilitate and promote technology solutions, bring about a unified technology program throughout state agencies, and provide accountability for the direction of technology projects by one of the largest technology purchasers in the world.

"AeA pursued this legislation because our members believe an empowered State CIO will provide consistency in technological solutions and procurements," said Gould. Such a CIO will be able to drive the purchase of the enterprise-wide applications essential for improving government performance, reducing fraud, and leveraging existing programs to better serve the citizens of California, all the while promoting technology as an essential means to almost every public policy end."

For more information about AeA, please visit www.aeanet.org.

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About AeA
AeA, the nation’s largest technology trade association with 2,500 member companies representing all segments of the high-tech industry, is dedicated solely to helping our members’ top line and bottom line. We do this in partnership with our small, medium, and large member companies by lobbying governments at the state, federal, and international levels, providing access to capital and business opportunities, and offering select business services and networking programs. For more information, please visit www.aeanet.org.

This page was last updated on 12/07/07.