Subbarao Mupparaju has just finished a six-year run as deputy director and chief information officer (CIO) for the Financial Information System for California (FI$Cal). He’ll start next week as the CIO for the California Department of Housing and Community Development.
Mupparaju spent the first 20 years of his career in the private sector before joining the California Department of Technology in 2012, and then moving to FI$Cal in July 2015 as deputy director and CIO. In March 2017, he was one of two winners of “CIO of the Year” honors at the California Public Sector CIO Academy, where he was lauded for having saved the state almost $10 million through software and hardware upgrades and the creation of a technology road map and a team capable of meeting that long-term vision.
The tech executive told Techwire that he was ready for a change, and that the timing is good because FI$Cal has just completed a major milestone.
FI$Cal’s director, Miriam Barcellona Ingenito, told Techwire in an email Wednesday: “We wish Subbarao all the best and thank him for his role in positioning FI$Cal to be the success it is today.”
In a similarly complimentary staff email this month announcing Mupparaju’s departure, Barcellona Ingenito wrote: “To say Subbarao is a high performer is an understatement, and for him, it’s never been about the hours, rather the results.”
In a statement to Techwire at that time, Mupparaju said: “The Financial Information System for California is one of the most complex IT undertakings in California history, and it has truly been my honor and pleasure to lead the Information Technology Division over the past six years and across the finish line. While this has been (among) the most challenging and rewarding work I’ve undertaken in the state and successfully delivered on all my commitments, this is a good time for me to move on as I need to balance my work commitments with some of my family commitments in the near future.”
In his new role, Mupparaju will be overseeing technology for a large department that needed to fill the CIO role quickly. The former CIO and chief information security officer, Sumi Smith, transitioned out of HCD earlier this summer, according to a department spokesperson.
“HCD plays an important role in addressing the housing and homelessness crises in California, and we knew that we needed to recruit an experienced CIO quickly in order to support HCD’s mission,” the department’s deputy director of Administration and Management, KC Mohseni, told Techwire in an email Wednesday.
“We are ecstatic to have Subbarao Mupparaju join Team HCD, and his experience and leadership in IT will be key components of our success with several technology initiatives we have underway,” Mohseni wrote.
Mupparaju, in addition to being an award-winning public-sector executive and frequent speaker at tech industry conferences and briefings, won plaudits during the first part of his career, in the private sector.
His biography on the FI$Cal website, which was still active Wednesday, noted that he has “over 20 years in executive leadership roles on projects involving large-scale applications development, systems integration, commercial off-the-shelf/enterprise resource planning implementation, and business transformation projects. He has led cross-functional, multi-organizational, and geographically dispersed teams and successfully implemented several statewide and nationwide systems including the California Driver License System, the California Child Welfare Services Case Management System, and the Missouri Automated Child Support System.”
Mupparaju has a master’s degree in engineering degree from PSG College of Technology in India. He is a Project Management Institute-certified Project Management Professional and an IBM-certified Information Technology Specialist. He received the Hewlett Packard Most Valuable People award in 2010 and the IBM Hundred Percent Club award in 2003.
FI$Cal has begun recruiting for a new deputy director/CIO; the deadline for applications is Aug. 6.
