California Office of Technology Services chief Robert Schmidt has informed his staff he'll retire from state service in February 2017, according to Techwire sources.
The Brown administration appointed Schmidt the chief of OTech in September 2015, replacing Davood Ghods. Schmidt had been the agency CIO and director of Executive Office/IT Services at the California Department of Food and Agriculture since 2011.
According to the governor’s office, he was principal of statewide IT consolidation at the Department of Technology from 2009 to 2011, and a system software specialist at the California Franchise Tax Board from 1999 to 2009 and at the California Department of Technology from 1996 to 1999, where he was an associate system software specialist from 1995 to 1996.
In an email announcement to staff on Monday, Schmidt cited personal circumstances as the reason for his departure and wrote "this retirement is bittersweet; I am excited to start a new chapter in my life but sad to end another."
Under the California Department of Technology, OTech has about 600 staff and a budget north of $300 million. The office provisions servers, cloud computing, application hosting, telecommunications and other IT services for approximately 500 customers in state and local government and education.
“Although Rob’s expertise and leadership will be missed in the future at the CDT, we’re very supportive of Rob’s decision to retire and begin a new chapter in his life. We are equally appreciative that Rob has planned his retirement to allow for a smooth transition during the next four months so that we can continue to provide excellent services to our customers and taxpayers of California,” said state CIO and CDT director Amy Tong, and deputy state CIO Chris Cruz, in an email statement to Techwire.
