Chris Morgan – CIO New York



Chris Morgan is the Chief Information Officer of New York City. Prior to this, he was the CIO of eBay, where he was responsible for the company's technology infrastructure and strategic investments. Morgan has long been a proponent of technology integration and innovation in the business world. In this blog post, he offers his insights on the current state of information technology and how it can help your business grow.

Chris Morgan – CIO New York


Chris Morgan CIO New York Bio

Chris Morgan is the CIO of New York City and has been with the city since 2007. He oversees all of the city's IT operations, including data center management, budgeting, procurement, and human resources. Morgan has a business degree from Adelphi University and his MBA from The New School.




Chris Morgan's role as his CIO in New York

Chris Morgan has been his CIO in New York since July 2016. Prior to that, he served as CIO of Los Angeles from January 2014 to July 2016. Prior to that, he served as CIO of Chicago from January 2008 until January 2014. In his role as New York's CIO, Morgan is responsible for the overall strategic planning and execution of the city's government agencies' information technology (IT) initiatives. He also oversees the city's enterprise architecture, data management and modernization programs, and procurement processes.

Morgan has over 25 years of her IT experience in both public and private sector organizations. Prior to that, he held executive positions at companies such as HP, Ernst & Young, and Verizon Communications. As his CIO in Los Angeles, Morgan led a billion-dollar IT infrastructure initiative that integrated 84 separate IT systems into 10 enterprise resource planning (ERP) applications. During his tenure, Chicago's IT budget increased by 50% and benefits spending increased by 45%. This was facilitated by the efficiency gains achieved through automation and data management initiatives.

Chris DeSain: Chief Information Security Officer, New York

Chris DeSain has served as New York's Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) since June 2022. In this role, Chris and his team are responsible for monitoring and maintaining the security of government information systems and data from cyber intruders and attacks.

Chris brings 24 years of invaluable cybersecurity experience, including nearly 20 years of his leadership position in the New York state government. Most recently, he served as Director of the Homeland Security and Emergency Services Agency (DHSES) Counter-Terrorism He-Cyber ​​Incident Response Team.

Early in his career, he helped establish the New York State Police (NYSP) cyber program, designed the FBI's Criminal Justice Information Service (CJIS) policy, and became the first civilian CJIS information security officer in the United States. .

During his previous tenure as Director of NYS ITS Cyber ​​Command, Chris formed a “red team” and established proactive threat response to timely remediate potential threats and vulnerabilities. Did.

Chris has earned the GIAC Security Essentials Certification (GSEC). This is a professional certification for those who wish to demonstrate their technical proficiency in cybersecurity. In 2013 he won the "Best of New York" award from the Center for Digital Government and in 2017 he won the NYS Cyber ​​Security Champion Award.




Who is CIO and how to become one

A CIO (Chef Information Officer) is an information technology director in large companies, one of the top managers who is responsible for the digital development of the company and the implementation of advanced technologies.

In IT companies, the CIO determines what tasks the development team will perform, what technologies will be used, and in what direction software development will take in general.

How the CIO differs from the CTO

Standards are standards, however, and companies decide which functions to entrust to their employees. With the heads of IT departments it's exactly the same story: the range of their responsibilities can be very different, so there is some confusion between CTO (Chef Technical Officer) and CIO. Who is in charge of what? Who is responsible for what? Who reports to whom?

In fact, a company can have one person in charge as well as the other. However, there is some difference in competencies. A CIO is a manager with a strategic vision. He can forecast and plan:

Which technology platforms to use;Which customers to target and how to select them;Which types of IT systems to apply in development;Scaling up current projects, etc.

The CTO is quite different. This is the technical specialist who manages directly the development of the software product. He or she is also responsible for negotiating with customers and clients, acting as a technical expert, working with budgets in a certain way, responsible for new development trends, etc.

There can be both CIO and CTO positions in a company. And in that case, the latter is subordinate to the former. However, not every firm has the luxury of hiring two managers at once, so there is only one IT director responsible for everything, who performs the duties of both specialists.




What exactly does CIO do

Since we are talking about a technical director, he is mainly focused on solving organisational problems:

Negotiating with customers, dealing with suppliers;Purchasing the necessary software and equipment for development by means of tenders;Working with documentation (development of technical regulations, project and technical documents);Strategic planning;Scaling and development of projects;IT infrastructure maintenance;IT budget planning and optimization;Implementation of automated systems in the company's subdivisions;Receiving, quality control of equipment, software, consumables, accessories;Control over information security in the company.

More often than not, the CIO only supervises and doesn't directly deal with development. A company has team leaders for this purpose. However, if the company is small or a startup, it is not uncommon that the director takes care of the coding, or at least he provides the infrastructure.

That is why employees with backend developer background, DevOps engineers or former sysadmins are very valuable for the CIO position. Then you have to move into management.




CIO skills and

A CIO is definitely a techie with extensive IT experience. However, since he does not have to write code anymore, management skills come to the fore:

Ability to write technical documentation;Knowledge of regulations and development standards;Leadership and communication skills;Analytical, forecasting and hypothesis testing skills;Stress tolerance and the ability to multitask;Constant self-study and willingness to learn new technologies.

The CIO's job can be compared to that of a chef: he may not stand behind the cooker (although he can and loves it), but he must be able to plan the kitchen budget, buy products, draw up flow charts and manage the staff.





Business and Finance terms

Withholding Tax General Accepted Accounting Standards Letter Of Intent Scarcity Year-to-date Long-Term Liabilities Non-Disclosure Agreement Chief Operating Officer Return on Investment Chief Marketing Officer Chief Financial Officer Asset Protection Trust Chief Security Officer Certified Financial Planner Electronic Funds Transfer Limited Liability Company Close of Business Company Finance Cash Flow Automated Teller Machine Return on Equity stagnation Certified Management Accountant Non-Profit Organization Certified Financial Manager Chief Technology Officer Profit and Loss Profit and Loss Statement Gross Margin