Washington CIO Bill Kehoe to remain in role under incoming governor

Washington Chief Information Officer Bill Kehoe is set to keep his role as the state’s top technology official under the new administration of Gov.-elect Bob Ferguson. 

Kehoe will be one of seven cabinet officials appointed by Gov. Jay Inslee who Ferguson announced Dec. 19 will roll over to serve in his new administration, according to The Olympian.

Kehoe, who also serves as director of Washington Technology Solutions in addition to his role as statewide CIO, joined the state in 2021 from Los Angeles County, California where he served as CIO for four years. Prior to that, he served as CIO of King County, Washington, the seat of Seattle and the state’s most populous county, for over seven years.

While serving as Washington’s statewide CIO under Inslee, Kehoe has made a name for himself taking a “whole-of-state” approach to technology modernization, in hopes of making Washington what he called recently the “Amazon Prime of government.” Shortly after taking his role, he also took the “whole-of-state” approach to cybersecurity, sharing with StateScoop that his first priority would be instituting an enterprise approach to cybersecurity. 

In 2023, Inslee signed a law expanding and adding new layers to the state’s cybersecurity governance, helping Kehoe achieve more standardization across the state’s cyber practice. The law also created two new panels to advise the governor’s office and the state CIO’s office on emerging threats and incident response practices. 

As CIO, Kehoe also has taken a restrained approach to exploring generative artificial intelligence in state government. He said in May the state was evaluating using the technology for language translation and personalizing digital services — but not without first fleshing out the risks, which he said included unforeseen costs and worrisome outputs.

Kehoe also said under Inslee’s executive order, which was signed last January and laid out 12 months of AI policy work for the state, his agency and others would spend a good deal of time evaluating how the state government can best use the rapidly advancing technology.

The reappointments take effect on Jan. 15, when Ferguson is sworn in as governor.