Angelo “Tony” Riddick

GoldenGov: State Executive of the Year

As New York’s CIO, Angelo “Tony” Riddick spent much of his first year-plus in Albany overseeing the rollout of and revisions to Excelsior Pass, the state’s COVID-19 vaccine passport. Making it compatible with records from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs was a “major accomplishment,” the 30-year Army veteran says. Meanwhile, he continues to lead an IT workforce of 3,100 employees, responsible for tasks like equipping a massive state workforce now on a hybrid schedule and building out a new cybersecurity operations center that opened in Brooklyn last fall. “I have a dedicated force…that simply knows how to get the job done,” he says.