Nevada County’s Monaghan Passes CIO Torch to Successor

Nevada County government executive Steve Monaghan, the longtime director of the county’s Information and General Services Agency as well as the county’s chief information officer, has passed the CIO portion of his role to a successor.

Landon Beard, who began with the county 20 years ago as a computer service technician and worked his way up through increasingly responsible roles in technology, is the new CIO.

Monaghan explained that designating Beard as the county’s new tech chief is part of his succession planning. Monaghan has been with the county since April 1999 and is a couple of years from retirement.

“With great excitement” is how Monaghan framed his news, which he detailed in a LinkedIn post.

“Landon started with the county 20 years ago, not long after graduating from college,” Monaghan wrote. “Over this time, he quickly promoted through most positions in the IT shop, working up to being the technical operations manager for the past six years. During this time, Landon earned his MS in computer science and honed his natural leadership skills. Landon will be an amazing leader for the IT team here, very much looking forward to the great things he will lead the team to accomplish.”

Beard, the newly minted CIO, received his bachelor’s degree in information systems from University of the Pacific. He is a resident of Nevada City.

Monaghan continued: “For me, I get to take off the CIO hat, focusing my full time now on being the director over the nine lines of business that make up our Information and General Services Agency. I still plan on being very active in the California County Information Services Directors Association (CCISDA)/California State Association of Counties Leadership Program, mentoring capstone teams and teaching classes.

“Nevada County is doing a lot of exciting things countywide with high-performing organization initiatives, mentorships, leadership development, etc., that I am supporting as well,” Monaghan wrote. “Rural broadband is ongoing, too. All is very exciting and continues to be a dream job for my last couple years before retirement.”

Monaghan was featured in an Industry Insider — California “One-on-One” interview in 2021.

In addition to leading Nevada County government’s tech maturation since 1999, Mohaghan has been active in CCISDA as well as numerous other industry and government organizations. He’s a speaker at conferences and wrote a series of commentaries for Rural County Representatives of California.

And Monaghan had one more message for those in the tech industry: “If you want to join a high-performing, award-winning IT organization lead by a new dynamic CIO, in a world-class outdoor recreation community (www.gonevadacounty.com), please consider applying for our soon-to-be-released technical operations manager position.”