The city of Des Moines, Iowa, announced Monday that it has hired former Missouri chief information officer Jeffrey Wang as its new chief information officer.
The hire comes 13 months after Wang announced he was stepping down as Missouri’s chief technology officer after three and a half years in the role.
As CIO for Des Moines, a metropolis of 570,000 residents, Wang is responsible for overseeing the IT infrastructure, network and applications, including the city’s geographic information system and enterprise software used by 17 agencies, according to a city statement.
“I am excited to serve the City of Des Moines and its residents in the next chapter of my career,” Wang said in a press release. “Being selected and trusted to bring my experience to an organization focused on modernizing services citywide is an exceptional opportunity that I look forward to.”
As Missouri’s CIO, Wang led the state’s information technology services department and was responsible for providing technology training to 40,000 state employees and managing the enterprise technology platform.
During his tenure, Wang also was an advocate for “intentional” change management to avoid the myriad pitfalls surrounding Missouri’s ongoing massive IT modernization project, he told StateScoop.
“Modernizing means changing how we interact with citizens and how we do our jobs every day as employees,” Wang says. “The framework allows us to create a checklist to make sure we’re communicating the right things at the right time, letting people know what’s going to happen with the changes, and keeping the project moving smoothly.”
Prior to joining Missouri government, Mr. Wang worked primarily in the private sector, serving as CIO and Executive Vice President of Illinois Mutual Life Insurance Company. From 2004 to 2006, he served as Director of Infrastructure Modernization for the Internal Revenue Service. He also served as Chief Technology Officer for the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.
