California’s governor appoints former federal official as new state CIO
California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Wednesday appointed Christopher Given as the state’s chief information officer and director of the California Department of Technology.
If confirmed, Given, who has served as deputy secretary for technology and innovation at the California Government Operations Agency since last year, will replace Liana Bailey-Crimmins, who retired as CIO last month. Given said in an email that he’ll start his new role on Monday.
According to a bio on the California GovOps website, Given has more than a decade of experience as a technologist and civil servant, “empowering talented, multi-disciplinary teams to craft more accessible and effective government services.” The bio notes that he’s worked across ten federal agencies — including the Department of Veterans Affairs, Social Security Administration, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Administration for Children and Families.
From 2024 to 2025, Given was the product lead of Direct File at the IRS, where he led a team designing a system allowing taxpayers, for the first time, to file online directly with the IRS. Given’s team of 75 engineers, product designers and data scientist team scored a massive victory by figuring out how to pre-populate users’ data from the previous year’s return — something he didn’t think he would accomplish until 2026.
“It was quite the effort by the data import team to actually pull those pieces together and get it in place where we could not only try it out with a few taxpayers, but literally roll it out to everybody in 2025,” Given told FedScoop in 2025.
The Trump administration last year announced plans to end Direct File, which for Given meant shifting his focus to help states “continue Direct File in spirit,” by building better digital experiences and raising awareness about taxpayer credits.
He’s held roles with state governments of Connecticut and Illinois, and the District of Columbia. Given also taught at the Johns Hopkins University Krieger School of Arts and Sciences.
California’s department has recently seen other leadership changes: Jonathan Porat, the state’s chief technology officer, stepped down this month.
