Virginia tech agency gets CIO

VITA

The Virginia Information Technology Investment Review Board today named Lemuel Stewart as the first chief information officer of the new consolidated Virginia Information Technology Agency (VITA).

Stewart has more than 30 years of IT experience in the private sector, most recently as president of Executive Partners in Glen Allen, Va., a consulting firm for government and industry. He has had other positions within the Virginia government, including director of the Department of IT, which was one of the more than 90 technology-related agencies integrated into the new agency.

"Given the context of the IT transformation efforts under way, both organizationally and technically, the board sought someone who would be a change agent and an experienced leader," said Len Pomata, the board's CIO Search Subommittee chairman. "We also thought it was important for the CIO to have both public- and private-sector experience and the ability to respond to a wide range of constituencies."

The CIO position has a five-year contract with the board, not the governor's office, in order to ensure continuity across administrations. Stewart will be working under Secretary of Technology George Newstrom, who is responsible for developing the overall strategy for both VITA and Virginia's Center for Innovative Technology.

Virginia formed VITA during the 2003 legislative session to serve as the single operational branch of the state Secretary of Technology's office. The same legislation that created the agency established the board, which is made up of private-sector executives, to review and prioritize the state's IT investments.