Mississippi names new chief technology officer

Mississippi’s technology department on Thursday announced that it’s promoted Steve Patterson, its director of data services, to serve as the state’s chief technology officer.

In a post on LinkedIn, Mississippi Department of Information Technology Services congratulated Patterson, who will lead “enterprise technology operations, guide statewide IT modernization efforts, and ensure secure, scalable, and reliable services that support Mississippi agencies and citizens.”

Patterson replaces Brian Norwood, who spent 25 years with ITS, first writing code as a Java developer and then working his way into the C suite. Norwood stepped down from public service last November to take a role as director of infrastructure services with Trustmark Bank. Patterson also has two decades of state service — he joined Mississippi’s state government in 2006 as an open systems manager, a role he held for 13 years.

Craig Orgeron, Mississippi’s chief information officer, told Government Technology that Patterson will support “continued modernization efforts, strengthening alignment across enterprise technology operations” and meeting a growing demand for services across the state government.

“Steve has a strong combination of technical depth, leadership capability, and practical understanding of the operational challenges facing government IT organizations today,” Orgeron said in an email. “And just as important, he understands the importance of collaboration, service, and execution in a public-sector environment.” 

Patterson assumes Mississippi’s CIO role at a time of high activity. Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves on Wednesday approved legislation to create the state’s first cybersecurity operations center, which will be housed in the technology department. Orgeron told this publication last month that the new body, designed as a cross-agency meeting point for managing the state’s operational cybersecurity, “marks a significant step forward in our ability to protect the citizens and infrastructure of Mississippi from cyber threats.”

The Mississippi IT Optimization Act, meanwhile, is propelling greater centralization of the state’s IT services, as the technology bureau attempts to reduce duplication across agencies. State Rep. Bart Williams, who co-sponsored that bill, recently estimated that a single consolidation — of 31 Microsoft email licenses — would save the state as much as $2 million.

Patterson may also join an effort to stand up a statewide data exchange, a project approved by the legislature last year. Usman Tareen, a consultant with Gartner Research, last month reported to state lawmakers that while Mississippi has strong data security, its ability to share data across agencies is highly limited: “There is no fluidity of data movement between different agencies.”