Des Moines, Iowa, names former Missouri CIO as new tech chief

The City of Des Moines, Iowa, on Monday announced it’s hired former Missouri Chief Information Officer Jeffrey Wann as its new CIO.

The hire comes 13 months after Wann announced he was stepping down as Missouri’s top technology official after three-and-a-half years in the role.

As the CIO of Des Moines, a metropolitan center home to 570,000 residents, Wann is tasked with overseeing IT infrastructure, networking and applications, including the city’s geographic information systems and enterprise software used by 17 agencies, according to the city’s announcement.

“I’m excited to serve the City of Des Moines and its residents as the next chapter of my career,” Wann said in a press release. “To be chosen and trusted to bring my experience to an organization focused on modernizing their services across the City is a special opportunity that I look forward to.”

As Missouri CIO, Wann led the state’s Information Technology Services Division, where he was responsible for providing technology training for 40,000 state employees and managing enterprise technology platforms.

Wann was also a proponent of “intentional” change management, he told StateScoop during his tenure, to avoid the myriad pitfalls surrounding large scale IT modernization projects like those underway in Missouri.

“When you’re doing modernization, it really is about changing the way that you interface with your citizens, changing the way people do their daily jobs as employees,” Wann said. “Using a framework allows you to have checklists to ensure you are having appropriate communication at the right time, you’re helping people through what to expect in change and really making the project work smoothly.”

Before joining Missouri state government, Wann worked mostly in the private sector, including serving as CIO and a vice president of Illinois Mutual Life Insurance. From 2004 to 2006, he worked as a director of infrastructure modernization for the Internal Revenue Service. He also worked as the chief technology officer at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.