Doug Murdock

GoldenGov: State Executive of the Year

Serving as Hawaii’s CIO since 2019, much of Doug Murdock’s tenure has overlapped with the COVID-19 pandemic — particularly in coordinating technology for the tourism-dependent state’s Safe Travels program. Balancing safety with rejuvenating the economy after initial shutdowns, the program has logged 12 million trips, with about 96% of quarantine exemptions granted. And Murdock says much of the technology that debuted during the pandemic has longer-lasting applications. “We used call center and AI and chatbots and voice bots for the first time in Safe Travels, and now it’s being used by unemployment insurance and health and human services,” he says.