“I bring in or create centers of excellence everywhere I go,” Jennifer Chan told Techwire in an interview today. “I’m very big on process improvement, continuous improvement.”
Chan, who landed her first job in the IT industry in 2004 — as a business analyst/consultant with Informatix — began her service in state government in 2010 with the State Board of Equalization as a project management analyst and then as an enterprise architect. She then spent two years with the California Department of Technology as a principal and then a section chief. In July 2015, she moved to the Employment Development Department, where she has served as chief of the Technology Governance Division.
Chan credits “great mentors along the way who’ve given me the ability to share my knowledge and experience from the private sector and leverage that” to benefit state government.
“One of the things I’m most proud of is my time here at EDD,” she said. “I came into an organization that lacked consistent, stable leadership, after a series of transitional changes. … I met with the staff and managers and developed a strategic plan for my division. … We elevated this to be one of the best divisions.
Chan says she’s a big believer in metric tools — strategic plans, Balanced Scorecards and the like.
“The Balanced Scorecard is a way to measure our progress – our strategic priorities, out strategic objectives, something you do on an iterative basis,” she said. “‘Did I make measurable progress?’ It’s a good communications tool to show your stakeholders.
“A strategic plan should not just be shelfware.”
Outside of her career in gov tech, Chan enjoys competing in paint horse competitions — an avocation she shares with her mother “on a global, national and state level,” she said.
