State rep on CIO Council departs

West Virginia Governor's Office of Technology

Keith Comstock, West Virginia's chief technology officer, will resign his position May 10 , a move that also affects state governments' representation on the federal CIO Council.

"It was a personal decision," said Comstock, who was appointed in January 2001 and ran the West Virginia Governor's Office of Technology. "We're trying to make a nice smooth transition, but I decided it was time to look for a new challenge."

Comstock, who handed in his resignation nearly three weeks ago, also was the National Association of State Chief Information Officers' (www.nascio.org) liaison to the federal CIO Council.

Rock Regan, Connecticut's CIO and the current president of NASCIO, said April 24 that Ohio CIO Greg Jackson had been tapped to replace Comstock on the CIO council. Regan said he was "a little surprised" by Comstock's resignation. "But this is the world we live in now — we live [with] a lot of change," he said. "I haven't had a chance to talk to him directly so I'm not sure what his plans are, but I wish him the best and wish him well. He was a good person to work with."

Comstock was named the group's representative to the CIO council more than three months ago in order to present a collective view of state government policies, objectives and issues. In recent years, NASCIO has emerged as an influential group affecting technology policy nationwide, and collaboration between the federal and state governments has increased concurrently.

"Those were things I really enjoyed doing," said Comstock, referring to NASCIO activities. "Of course, I'm going to continue to support NASCIO.... Officially or unofficially, there are some very important things we're working on and some very important balls that we don't want dropped."

Before joining the government, Comstock was a top executive with Clarksburg, W.Va.-based Micah Systems Inc., an information technology firm founded by his father. Later, in 1994, he and his brother co-founded Fenwick Technologies Inc., also with headquarters in West Virginia. Comstock would not discuss his future plans.