Missouri CIO set to retire at the end of the year

John Laurent, Missouri’s chief information officer since 2024, will retire at the end of the year, according to a Tuesday letter shared by the Missouri Office of Administration’s Information Technology Services Division (OA-ITSD).

Laurent joined Missouri’s government in September 2021 as chief of business systems in the Information Technology Services Division (ITSD) within OA-ITSD. He was promoted to deputy CIO in November 2022, and then named acting CIO in May 2023 after former CIO Jeff Wann left the role. 

He was formally appointed as state CIO in December 2024.

Prior to joining Missouri, Laurent gathered over two decades of senior executive experience in private industry. He served as a consultant for Cierra-Cedar and a vice president of Enterprise Holdings’ global business support systems division, and also spent a decade in enterprise IT consulting, including five years with Accenture.

According to OA-ITSD, Laurent will continue to serve as CIO through the end of the year to “ensure a smooth transition of ongoing division operations and strategic milestones.”

In the letter, OA-ITSD said Laurent spearheaded Missouri’s comprehensive Digital Government Transformation, which drove changes across IT governance, project execution and citizen experience. Under his leadership, according to OA-ITSD, the state’s percentage of IT projects completed on time and on budget surged from 42% in 2018 to more than 80%, which it claimed was “well above the national industry average.” 

Laurent also established a new model of collaboration across departments in executive agencies as CIO, and during his tenure, the state saw “unprecedented technological achievements across OA-ITSD’s portfolio,” the office said, which includes over 1,200 active software solutions and more than 100 enterprise projects across the state.

In a message to his team, Laurent reflected on his time with the state and work to modernize statewide digital services. 

“It is a bittersweet decision for me, and I will be leaving with a full heart thanks to all of you,” Laurent said. “The old saying that ‘it’s a marathon, not a sprint’ has not been accurate for us for several years. We’ve all been sprinting in order to deliver such a wide set of solutions to all our users. It has been a sincere blessing to work alongside such an extraordinarily talented team committed to looking after Missouri’s citizens, businesses, and teammates across our agencies.”

Laurent’s replacement has not yet been announced.