State & Local Government Policy, Business and Technology

Maine Is Building Its Tech Workforce From the Ground Up

Route Fifty: Jim Smith has been Maine’s chief information officer for more than six years now. As the average tenure for a state CIO is about two years, that qualifies as an achievement in its own right. What Smith is most proud of over his tenure, though, is utilizing his offices’ expertise to both build and inspire the next generation of IT leadership.

“We've had students come to us and say, ‘I changed what I was going to do because I learned about IT through you guys,’” Smith said in an interview with Route Fifty during the National Association of State Chief Information Officers midyear conference. “We've had interns come in through those programs who are now full-time employees.”

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