JEFFERSON CITY – The Missouri Office of Administration (OA) announced that Jeffrey Wann, a technology leader with more than 25 years of experience, will be the new State of Missouri Chief Information Officer. He will be leading the OA Information Technology Services Division (ITSD), the state’s consolidated IT organization.
Wann will lead a team of nearly 1,000 IT professionals that support the IT systems and services used by 14 executive departments and three statewide-elected officials in their daily operations. He officially started as CIO on January 16th.
Previously working as Vice President of information technology at Illinois Mutual Insurance, he doubled as both the Chief Information Officer and Chief Information Security Officer. In this position, Wann created a multi-year modernization program for legacy mainframe applications.
“I’m excited to bring my knowledge and skills back to the state of Missouri,” Wann said. “ITSD plays such an important role with Missouri’s government. I believe it is critical to the state’s success.”
Wann previously held information technology executive positions within the private sectors of Fortune 500 company Erie Insurance and Edward Jones. He held multiple information technology officer positions within the Federal Reserve System and served as a director in the IRS within the multi-billion-dollar modernization effort.
“The state’s CIO is extremely important to the operation of state government, and I think Jeff is a great fit,” said Sarah Steelman, Office of Administration Commissioner. “His experience and management skills will be a great addition to an already strong team. His leadership and creative thinking will help provide the collaboration and support departments need to use technology to improve the way we serve our citizens.”
Wann takes over ITSD from CIO Mike Cheles, who worked as CIO since October of 2018. Cheles announced his retirement in July of 2019.
Wann is a Missouri Native, receiving his undergraduate education from Ohio University and Central Bible College out of Springfield, Mo. He did graduate work at Eden Theological Seminary and the Assemblies of God Theological Seminary. Wann participated in various executive education courses sponsored by UCLA, Penn State – Behrend, and Stanford, as well as corporate executive training.