Nevada names client services chief as new statewide CTO
The Nevada Governor’s Technology Office on Friday announced that Michael D. Smith, who’s worked for the state in various IT roles over the past decade, is the state’s new chief technology officer.
As CTO, Smith will assist the state’s chief information officer, Timothy Galluzi, in implementing the state’s technology strategy focused on “operational excellence, customer service, modernization, and stronger coordination with executive branch agencies,” according to a press release.
“My focus is turning strategy into operational playbooks, guardrails, and measurable outcomes so our teams know what to do, not just why we are doing it,” Smith said in the release.
Smith in 2015 joined the state government’s motor vehicles department, where he stayed for seven months before moving to the Department of Administration. There he stayed six years before in 2022 he joined the state’s technology bureau. He most recently served as division chief of client services.
Galluzi is quoted in the press release as saying that Smith has “worked across the stack, led customer-facing teams, and built the kind of practical experience that helps turn big goals into better service. That combination matters in state government, where reliable technology is not an accessory to public service, it is part of how public service gets delivered.”
Before joining the state, Smith held retail management roles, including at The Home Depot. According to his LinkedIn profile, he started his professional career at CompUSA, a personal computer and electronics retailer that shut its doors in the mid-2000s.
Smith said his work in retail taught him to “meet customers where they are, not where I wish they would be. It is the same in government technology: clarify the need in plain language, set expectations, follow through, and make it easy to do the right thing. Most IT problems are also process clarity and communication problems. Solve those, and the technology follows.”
Nevada’s technology enterprise has recently undergone several changes, including security upgrades after suffering a ransomware attack last year, a restructuring that moved the CIO inside the governor’s office and an “aggressive” campaign to simplify the state’s IT environment.
