Tarek Tomes serves as the Commissioner of Minnesota IT Services (MNIT) and the State of Minnesota’s Chief Information Officer (CIO), leading state efforts to provide the best possible IT solutions and customer service to the people of Minnesota and our business partners. As a recognized industry leader, Tomes brings over 25 years of experience in managing technology innovation across diverse industries, both in national, international, and public and private sector operations. Throughout his career, he has facilitated data-driven decision making, implemented many critical enterprise projects, and improved workforce diversity and inclusion. Before becoming Commissioner, Tomes served as the Chief Innovation Officer and former Chief Information Officer at the City of St. Paul, where he was responsible for managing ongoing process improvements, supporting human-centered design, and increasing the overall effectiveness of city services and resources. While in St. Paul, Tomes facilitated a digital transformation at the city level, pioneering the use of mobile applications to improve resident opportunities. This work allowed the city to leverage deep data insights while promoting and supporting equitable service delivery. During his time as St. Paul’s Chief Information Officer, Tomes oversaw the launch of St. Paul’s Open Information Portal, which serves to promote and encourage innovative uses of data and transparency in government services. Tomes’ prior work experience also includes six years as an Assistant Commissioner of Minnesota IT Services, where he created several nation-leading Information Technology sourcing agreements for 33,000+ user utility services statewide – including the first cloud-based public sector statewide service offering in the nation. While Tomes was serving in this role, Minnesota became the first state in the country to manage all Information Technology through service level agreements, a model that was recognized with a national award. Before joining state service, Tomes spent 13 years working for British Telecom. Tomes received his Bachelor’s degree from the University of Maryland and attended Graduate School for Business Management at Boston University. Less   View all posts

Before joining the School of Government at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in February 2009, Maurice Ferrell served as the 1st chief information officer for the Institute for Advanced Learning and Research in Danville, VA. His efforts were recognized by the Governor of Virginia at the Commonwealth of Virginia Innovative Technology Symposium (COVITS) in 2004 for Technology Innovation in Higher Education. He also served as principal investigator for a three-year National Science Foundation grant that totaled $1 million, which focused on providing technology experiences for high school students. Previously, Ferrell was the IT director for the Danville Public School System. Ferrell earned a PhD in Leadership Studies from North Carolina A&T State University, an MBA from Liberty University, a bachelor's degree in business administration from Averett University, and an associate degree in information technology from Danville Community College. In April of 2019, Ferrell became the School's Assistant Dean of Information Technology & CIO. Previously, he served as the Assistant Director for the Center of Public Technology. Less   View all posts