The California Secretary of State's Office has hired Rita Gass to the position of CIO. Her first day will be June 13.
For the past eight years Gass has been the CIO of the California Conservation Corps, where during her tenure the corps won an award in 2014 from the National Association of State Chief Information Officers (NASCIO) for its rapid deployment of a cloud-based recruiting system.
During her time with the corps, Gass also worked as the project director for the department’s ERP replacement project that moved to the cloud.
Gass has worked for the state of California for more than 20 years in positions such as network and system administrator for the California Franchise Tax Board (1999-2000), senior system engineer (2000-2004) and technical project manager (2004-2008) for the California Energy Commission.
Gass received the 2016 GovTech Top 25 Doers, Dreamers and Drivers award as a member of "Team California" within the California Natural Resources Agency.
She holds a master's degree from the University of Phoenix.
Gass will replace Chris Maio, who left the Secretary of State's Office late last year to lead efforts to relaunch the State Controller's statewide payroll system.
The Secretary of State's Office is proposing to restart an IT project called Business Connect that will enable businesses to submit filings and retrieve records online. Lawmakers last week voted 4-0 to approve $1.8 million toward the rebuild of the antiquated online campaign and lobbying database known as Cal-Access.
