Gov. Schwarzenegger appoints a director of California’s new-ish Department of Technology Services

The Sacramento Bee reported that California Governorator Arnold Schwarzenegger appointed P.K. Agarwal director of California’s Department of Technology Services.  Agarwal, 58, has been vice president of ACS, an IT outsourcing provider, since 2003.  He will earn an annual salary of $123,255, according to The Bee.  His position requires the state Senate’s confirmation. The Department of Technology Services was established in July of this year to consolidate and modernize the state’s IT.  My colleague Susannah Patton who writes for CIO from her home-office in California doesn’t think Agarwal is replacing Clark Kelso, who was appointed the state’s CIO in 2002. She thinks Agarwal is overseeing the state’s newly merged data centers.

Commercial Property News reports that Robert Entin will join Vornado Realty Trust http://www.vno.com/index.phtml as its new CIO at the beginning of 2006.  Entin is the founder, president and chairman of Integrated Business Systems, a real estate software provider. 

IT News.com reports that KAZ Group, an Australian IT services company owned by Telstra, Australia’s leading telecom company, hired Tony Gold as its CIO.  Gold will manage all functions within KAZ Business Services and its superannuation administration arm AAS.  He previously worked for Superpartners and Financial Synergy. 

Finally, a friendly reader informed me that Big Lots appointed a new executive in charge of IT on August 29. The new SVP of information technology, merchandise planning, allocation and replenishment is Lisa Bachmann.  Bachmann, 44, joined Big Lots in 2002 as its SVP of merchandise planning and allocation.  She reports to the new CEO, Steve Fishman, who joined the company last June.  John Zavada (pictured at right) had served as the closeout retailer’s senior vice president and CIO since February 2003.  Zavada reported to the chief administrative officer. 

Movers & Shakers won’t be updated tomorrow, but it will be updated Wednesday.  See you then.