Administration and Finance Secretary Thomas Trimarco today appointed Gutierrez as chief information officer at the Information Technology Division, which oversees Executive Branch IT operations and planning. Gutierrez is chief technology strategist at UMass Medical School's Commonwealth Medicine Division. Before that, Gutierrez was, according to the press release, "chief information officer for the Massachusetts Executive Office of Health and Human Services (HHS), the largest state secretariat with 23,000 staff and more than $12 billion in annual spending. While at HHS Gutierrez led the development and implementation of the state's Virtual Gateway, an online portal that integrated the web presence of 16 agencies into a user-friendly format that improved service delivery and reduced costs."

He has also worked in senior tech positions at Harvard Pilgrim Health Care and the Federal Reserve system and he's been CIO for the Commonwealth before. I like this sentence from the press release:

Gutierrez will be responsible for overseeing the final stages of implementation of the state's new Open Document format proposal, to go into effect in January 2007.

Romney is serious. I told you, did I not?

And to get a measure of the man, notice this quotation from Gutierrez in the press release:

"The Virtual Gateway is an example of how state government computing can be transformed through the application of open standards that interoperate with many kinds of technology and vendors," said Gutierrez.

That should satisfy everyone. Reduced costs is good. Someone who knows how to implement interopereability. Good track record. Knows the tech. What's not to like?

Unless you're Microsoft. Here's what they were spinning just before the announcement:

Microsoft’s McKee ... said that Microsoft might not be excluded from Massachusetts’ open-standards business after all. “The new interim CIO is crafting an additional policy,” McKee said.

[The new interim CIO] Pepoli, who declined an interview request, denied that such a change was occurring. Massachusetts “is not ‘crafting an additional policy’ in regard to the OpenDocument initiative,” Pepoli said in an e-mail. “We are proceeding with implementation of the OpenDocument Format standard.” But could Microsoft work within the OpenDocument standard? The company doesn’t seem to think so but is unsure, McKee said. The two systems should be able to communicate with one another and exchange data, although that may require additional applications, McKee said.

“The word ‘compatible’ is kind of tricky,” he said. “What they’ve asked for in their standard is that the default save-as must be in the ODF format. So what they’ve asked us to do is to have our product save into a format that, frankly, we feel is inferior.”

Heh heh. I found that priceless stuff from a link on Andy Updegrove's blog. Read on for the complete press release, minus contact info, which is for the media, and they have it already.

******************************************

ROMNEY ADMINISTRATION APPOINTS CHIEF INFORMATION OFFICER (1-30-06)

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts
Executive Department

January 30, 2006

ROMNEY ADMINISTRATION APPOINTS CHIEF INFORMATION OFFICER

Administration and Finance Secretary Thomas Trimarco today named Louis Gutierrez as chief information officer of the Information Technology Division (ITD), the department that oversees information technology operations and planning for executive branch agencies. The appointment is effective on February 6, 2006.

Gutierrez will be responsible for overseeing the final stages of implementation of the state's new Open Document format proposal, to go into effect in January 2007.

"Information technology is an important tool that helps to deliver a wide range of government services both quickly and cost effectively", said Trimarco. "Louis Gutierrez has a distinguished record in both the private and public sectors and brings a keen understanding of information technology's mission and its potential."

Bethann Pepoli, who has served as the department's acting chief information officer, will become deputy chief information officer. Gutierrez will leave his current position as chief technology strategist at the Commonwealth Medicine Division of UMass Medical School in order to accept the appointment. While at UMass Medical, Gutierrez directed a team that provided technology support during Operation Helping Hand, the state assistance effort for Hurricane Katrina evacuees who came to Massachusetts.

Prior to working at UMass Medical Gutierrez was chief information officer for the Massachusetts Executive Office of Health and Human Services (HHS), the largest state secretariat with 23,000 staff and more than $12 billion in annual spending. While at HHS Gutierrez led the development and implementation of the state's Virtual Gateway, an online portal that integrated the web presence of 16 agencies into a user-friendly format that improved service delivery and reduced costs.

"The Virtual Gateway is an example of how state government computing can be transformed through the application of open standards that interoperate with many kinds of technology and vendors," said Gutierrez. "As technology continues to evolve there remain substantial opportunities to transform services and a need to plan for the long-term future of technology-infused operations."

A former principal at the Exeter Group, an IT strategy and integration services firm, Gutierrez has held a number of top IT positions, including chief information officer at Harvard Pilgrim Health Care and deputy director for technology planning and standards for the Federal Reserve system. He is a former Commonwealth of Massachusetts chief information officer.

A graduate of Harvard College and MIT's Sloan School of Management, Gutierrez lives in Arlington with his wife and their two daughters.