BALTIMORE (via Technical.ly Baltimore) – Sept. 6, 2017 – Mayor Catherine Pugh announced a new hire Wednesday (9/6/2017) for the city’s top tech job.
Frank Johnson will lead the Mayor’s Office of Information Technology, serving as Chief Information Officer and Chief Digital Officer.
Johnson, a Johns Hopkins alum, comes to the role from the private sector. He is tasked with leading efforts to modernize IT and tech capabilities at the city government. He has prior experience with such efforts at large companies. Johnson’s LinkedIn page states that he previously worked at Intel.
At a news conference with the mayor, he talked about the importance of city leaders being willing to implement new technology. Johnson also said it is important to engage with the startup community, local businesses, universities and other communities.
“I absolutely will standardize and modernize the infrastructure here in the city,” he said.
Johnson enters an office that has seen a lot of turnover at the top, with four leaders since 2012. While her administration made some early changes such as putting the permitting system online, Pugh has lamented the state of the city’s technology as outdated, and said MOIT needs to be scrubbed.
“I want us to be a smart city but it certainly starts with the kind of technology that we implement,” Pugh said. “I think having someone like Frank Johnson with experience in the private sector is going to make a difference as well. Sometimes you have to look outside [government] to bring the right people inside to make the changes that you want.”
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About Frank Johnson
Frank is a visionary leader that quickly grasps near-term initiatives and opportunities while foreseeing long-term opportunities and how to achieve them. He brings a unique blend of expertise in building and developing winning teams as well as building and scaling businesses.
As the City of Baltimore’s Chief Information Officer (CIO) and Chief Digital Officer (CDO), Frank leads all digital transformation programs and supports the Mayor in her ongoing efforts to modernize the City of Baltimore’s IT capabilities which also include scaling the local IT ecosystem to drive awareness & tech investment in Baltimore City.
Frank has strategic technology discussions with the public and private organizations in the Baltimore City area every day. Put simply, he assists the Mayor in discovering how technology can deliver value and competitive advantage to Baltimore City and transform the lives of people that live, work and visit Baltimore City.
To learn more about Frank Johnson view his Spotlight.
About the city of Baltimore
Baltimore is the largest city in the U.S. state of Maryland, and the 29th-most populous city in the country. It was established by the Constitution of Maryland and is not part of any county; thus, it is the largest independent city in the United States. Baltimore has more public monuments than any other city per capita in the country and is home to some of the earliest National Register historic districts in the nation, including Fell’s Point (1969), Federal Hill (1970) and Mount Vernon Place (1971). More than 65,000 properties, or roughly one in three buildings in the city, are listed on the National Register, more than any other city in the nation.
Information provided by the City of Baltimore. To learn more about Baltimore visit their website.