Mass. CIO Gutierrez Throws in the Towel

Louis Gutierrez, Massachusetts CIO, has resigned from his post at the commonwealth, effective Nov. 3, Computerworld.com reports.

Gutierrez cited concerns regarding the state’s funding of IT initiatives as motivation, according to Computerworld.com.

Gutierrez has been a key component in the state’s attempt to move its executive branch agencies from Microsoft digital document formats to the OpenDocument Format (ODF).

Former Massachusetts CIO Peter Quinn, who championed the move to ODF, resigned in December 2005 for a number of reasons including a lack of funding for IT projects, Computerworld.com reports.

Gutierrez wrote a letter to his staff yesterday stating that he expected to face a number of difficult tasks when he took over the post from Quinn, but he did not expect the state to refuse to fund the majority of his proposed IT initiatives, according to Computerworld.com.

“We’re entering October, and to the best of my understanding there is no date established to act on the funding, or a date to agree on a date, despite many efforts continuing up until this week,” Gutierrez wrote in the letter, according to Computerworld.com. “Much of what I do (and much of what ITD does) is about these investments—deciding among them; working with our team to administer their finances; working with our team on the architecture, infrastructure, or frameworks to get the most out of shared investments; trying to understand how to fit lots of demand into tight capital budgets.”

For more information, read CIO Senior Online Editor Meridith Levinson’s blog post on the subject. Plus, visit her Movers and Shakers blog for more news on executive moves.

Check out our CIO News Alerts and Tech Informer pages for more updated news coverage.