North Carolina CIO Jim Weaver to step down at year’s end

After four years as chief information officer of North Carolina and more than 30 years in government IT spanning three states, Jim Weaver is retiring from public service to pursue a role in the private sector, officials confirmed with StateScoop on Wednesday.

Weaver joined North Carolina’s IT department in March 2021, where he led efforts to expand broadband access and affordability across the state, strengthen cybersecurity and improve digital services. He served three years as CIO of Washington state, where he sought to speed the organization’s adoption of emerging technology.

He also spent more than three decades in Pennsylvania state government, including serving in statewide chief technology officer and deputy CIO roles in the departments of human services, aging and insurance.

North Carolina’s $2.5 billion broadband initiative — which has served more than 189,000 households and businesses — and the state’s first office of digital equity and literacy, are sources of pride for Weaver.

“I’m not embarrassed to say this, I truly believe North Carolina has the best broadband program in the nation,” Weaver told StateScoop. “We’re now getting people who have not historically been connected on the digital highway connected, engaged and willing to do so in a safe and efficient manner.”

Weaver added that under the Affordable Connectivity Program, his office provided discounts to more than 900,000 households in North Carolina. The program, which provided discounts on broadband bills to more than 23 million households, expired last May.

“I’m really proud about the fact that our internet service providers in North Carolina continue to honor that price break, even though the Affordable Connectivity Program no longer exists,” he said. “It’s going to continue to provide dividends.”

Advances in cyber policy

In April 2022, North Carolina banned state and local agencies from paying ransoms after ransomware attacks. Florida passed its own statewide ban a few months later. North Carolina’s law went a step further, prohibiting governments from even communicating with ransomware groups.

Weaver said the intent of the legislation was not necessarily to stop ransomware attacks on state and local governments, but to formally take the decision of whether to pay off the table.

“It allowed us to, from the joint cyber task force perspective, to be able to come in and focus on containment, mitigation and remediation of the cyber event, and not have to waste valuable time having a conversation of, ‘Should we pay or shouldn’t we pay?’” he said.

Also in 2022, Gov. Roy Cooper signed an executive order establishing a Joint Cyber Task Force, composed of several state agencies, including the North Carolina Department of Information Technology Weaver was leading.

“It was the first time we ever received recurring funding for our state cybersecurity mission,” Weaver said. “That made for a comprehensive approach to how we responded to cyber incidents that were occurring at all levels of government here in the state of North Carolina. Extremely successful program.”

Generative AI

As president of the National Association of State Chief Information Officers, Weaver explored how state governments were using generative AI to improve states’ operations and digital services, expressing particular concern over the potential cost of the emerging technology.

“The cost of ownership is what really scares me. North Carolina has a tight end-budget process, and as we’re looking at some of the use cases, is it going to cost $50 a month, $15,000 a month, $150,000 a month? We don’t know,” Weaver said during a panel discussion at the NASCIO’s annual conference last October. “The scalability of some of these applications could have a dramatic impact on our budgets, and we’re not quite sure what happens if we run out of money and what’s going to be put at risk.”

Gov.-elect Josh Stein nominated Teena Piccione, an operations executive at Google, as Weaver’s replacement, according to a local news report.

Weaver said he wants to make sure his successor is aware of the ongoing AI initiatives in North Carolina, including the use of generative AI for updating old computer code and the state’s AI sandbox, which he called an “innovation island.”

“A lot of the initiatives we have underway are really focused around our data, we’re looking at data classification, how we examine use cases that agencies have from a business perspective, and understanding what that data looks like.” Weaver said of the state’s exploration with generative AI tools. “We have to make sure that we protect [our data], and so we’re taking a very … risk-based approach.”