ODI, which is led by Director Jeffery Marino and is part of the California Government Operations Agency, works “to deliver better government services to Californians through technology and design” and in close partnership with other state departments.
In the governor’s announcement Thursday, Matthew Zhou of Oakland was named ODI’s assistant chief data officer (ACDO), a promotion from his previous role as ODI’s data and analytics governance lead, a role he had held since last year.Zhou previously was senior data engineer for Peloton Interactive from 2021 to 2023; a tech policy fellow for The Aspen Institute from 2021 to 2022; engineering manager at VillageMD from 2018 to 2021; data engineer for the New York Times from 2017 to 2018; and a health informatics administrator for the Department of Biomedical Informatics at Columbia University from 2016 to 2017. He earned a Master of Public Health degree in health informatics from Columbia University and a Bachelor of Arts degree in anthropology from Northwestern University.
As ACDO, Zhou’s responsibilities, according to an ODI job posting and duty statement, include helping steer and deliver the statewide data strategy; shepherd statewide efforts to accelerate and streamline data access, modernize data management and services and accelerate excellent use of data in decision-making; and support the development of data standards and policy, “focused on harmonizing and modernizing data and analytics approaches across the state.”
In addition, the ACDO will serve as an adviser to the chief data officer; develop adoption strategies and resources including toolkits and playbooks; and inform and support deliverables such as those outlined in the Executive Order on Generative Artificial Intelligence and the Executive Order on Equity.
In a LinkedIn post about Zhou’s appointment, the state’s chief data officer, Jason Lally, wrote: “I am beyond thrilled to have Matthew Zhou join me as assistant chief data officer. He brings such depth of experience to this role. He has been an expert and thought partner on some of the most nuanced topics around the ethical use of data as our data and analytics governance lead. I’m excited to have Matt by my side as we move forward on delivering demographic data and measurement standards as well as guidelines to analyze the impact that adopting a GenAI tool may have on vulnerable communities.”
Zhou responded with a LinkedIn post of his own: “It’s been a joy and privilege to have been able to work with you the past year and to have gotten to experience your leadership, expertise and compassion first hand, Jason Lally! I’m really excited to get to continue to advise and partner with you on this incredible portfolio that we get to deliver on here at ODI.”
Marino, ODI’s director, posted a similarly enthusiastic comment about Zhou’s appointment: “We are so fortunate to have you in this role, Matt. People of California: you’ve got one of the brightest minds in the world fighting to ensure you get the effective, efficient and equitable services you deserve!”
Zhou was a panelist at the California Government Innovation Summit*, where he was among those addressing “California for All: Pioneering Digital Equity in the GenAI Era.”
Newsom on Thursday also named Summer Mothwood of San Francisco to the role of principal analytics engineer. According to the governor’s office, Mothwood has been a customer relationship management data engineer at the Mozilla Foundation since April. She was previously a marketing data analytics engineer for The Nature Conservancy from 2022 to 2024; senior insights analyst of marketing solutions at LinkedIn from 2021 to 2022; insights analyst at Pinterest from 2018 to 2021; and a data analyst at the Yerba Buena Center for Arts from 2014 to 2018. Mothwood earned a bachelor’s degree in liberal arts from Hampshire College.
The duties of the principal analytics engineer, according to an ODI job description, include serving as the lead expert on building efficient, flexible and actionable data models for a variety of analytic purposes; coaching other staff on how to develop data models using the dbt framework; leading the development and documentation of modern analytic engineering patterns for the state; and working with cloud-based tools and using SQL-driven coding practices with dbt to create data models.
*The California Government Innovation Summit was presented by Government Technology, sister publication to Industry Insider — California.
