Maryland Hires Bryan Sivak as State’s First Chief Innovation Officer

From the article in Public CIO:

When Washington, D.C., Mayor Vincent Gray defeated incumbent Adrian Fenty last year, Sivak suddenly was forced to look for a new gig after one year in D.C. government.

In Maryland, Sivak will likely see similar challenges, strengths and weaknesses. O’Malley has received acclaim —and some critics — for supporting analytics-based management. Sivak was working on similar data initiatives during his brief time in D.C. TechPresident mentioned that Sivak might also work on the state’s portal for purchasing health insurance, and could enact processes that tolerate risk in government IT projects. ...

The position of chief innovation officer — a job that’s become increasingly common in IT companies —could be gaining some traction in government. The Obama White House has minted a deputy CTO for innovation, a job now occupied by former San Francisco CIO Chris Vein. (San Francisco also has an innovation manager, Jay Nath.) Boston is also moving in a similar direction, with two staffers who lead ventures within City Hall from the Mayor's Office of New Urban Mechanics.

Local governments need innovation officers, but they shouldn't just come out of the information technology arena.