Techwire: If you had to pick one or two key projects or initiatives you’ve led in your time at CDT, what would that include and why?
Rogers: The first would be organization change management within CDT that helped position us to better meet the needs for our government partners and vendor community today and in the future. The second was identifying IT services that do not align with industry best practices or assisting our customer community in mitigating them.
Techwire: What one or two ongoing projects or transformations do you wish had been completed before your departure?
Rogers: I would like to have been around until 2023 to see all the initiatives that are spelled out in our Vision 2023 Strategic Plan being fully implemented. To watch the hundreds of individual digital services today transformed into a more integrated set of services from the public perspective and simplifying government services for ease of public consumption that is more compassionate, fair, accessible and reliable.
Techwire: You’ve been a strong advocate and defender of the mainframe and its role in gov tech going forward, even as cloud technology has become the new standard for much, if not most, of government. How do you make that case to skeptics?
Rogers: People still use PCs and Macs, and those technologies have been around since the early ’80s. I am not sure how many people are still running applications on DOS or System 1. Just like those devices, you need to keep the hardware and software current to continue to be relevant today. The mainframe is the industry’s first cloud solution, where a lot of companies would just buy utilization time for the mainframe that they did not own or support. The mainframe is still one of the most secure and reliable platforms there is today and critical entities like Wall Street continue to leverage it. It is the legacy software that people neglected to maintain that puts systems running on the mainframe at high risk. The mainframe can run today’s modern components like Unix, Linux, JAVA, Python, Docker, artificial intelligence, blockchain and data analytics.
Techwire: If you could change one thing about the pace or the governance of technology in state government, what would it be?
Rogers: Before we start modernizing our state services with technology, we need to first do business process re-engineering and organization change management in order to make the major transformation that will meet the goals of Vision 2023.
Techwire: How would you further streamline and improve the procurement/purchasing process?
Rogers: Using one of the first initiatives from Gov. Gavin Newsom, we have made significant progress in shortening the procurement process with RFI2 by now being able to perform IT procurements in days or weeks instead of months or years as in the past. But, the procurement process is just a small piece of the endgame. I also would like to discuss the bigger picture of what we are procuring. It seems government is most productive during a crisis. Look at all of the technology advances that came out of WWII, NASA during the space race, and now in response to the COVID crisis. We are able to create great solutions and significant incremental enhancements in short periods during a crisis. Our vendor partners have been great during these times: being flexible, accommodating, collaborative with competing companies and creative. Government has also been more open to ideas, as well as being agile, collaborative and accepting bigger risks. More frequent setbacks occurred to make major progress going forward. We need to see if we can sustain this momentum during normal times.
Techwire: You’re retiring and returning as an annuitant. What role will you perform in that capacity?
Rogers: I will be like a utility person and assist the department and the IT community with my experience and expertise in any way that I may be needed.
Techwire: Your father and brother were both in state service. What did they do, and how did they inspire you to enter the public sector?
Rogers: My dad worked at EDD (Employment Development Department), DOF (Department of Finance) and California Youth Authority; Curt spent most of his career as a manager at Health Services, and Calvin spent his whole career at the Department of Social Services. When I was a kid, I would drop by their offices, often during summer vacation, for lunch. They would introduce me to their staffs, peers and bosses where I would hear stories about their impact (personally and professionally), as well as observing firsthand the fun everyone was having. The state seemed to be a great place to work and make a difference.
Techwire: You’ve talked about your own heritage, your connection with MLK, and your pride in being named the first Black executive to be appointed to state IT leadership. Would you like to talk a little about that and why it’s meaningful to you?
Rogers: I first think about how lucky in life I am to have the opportunity to be here, in a position to be a state IT leader. I have had multiple situations between the age of 14 and 24 where it could have turned out differently. My best friend (Dennis) and I were stopped by the police and questioned about why we were in a specific neighborhood as we were walking from the movie theater to the arcades to play some pinball. One night after finishing my bowling league, a friend and I stopped at a major restaurant chain to get something to eat. We had to prepay before they would give us a seat and serve us. This restaurant was later part of a mass lawsuit due to this racial bias practice. I have been pulled over by the police, taken out of my car and had my car searched by police dogs for drugs, just because I was driving a flashy red car with chrome spokes that my parents bought me while going to college. And, one afternoon my brother and I were coming from an event, parked in the car and talking for a while in front of his house in Curtis Park when two police officers drove up behind us, walked on both sides of the car with their hands on their guns and had us show our ID and continued to interrogate us after we had proven we were in front of my brother’s house. Any of these events could have very well turned out differently and any of us could have been another Black man statistic of going to jail or worse. Dennis ended up getting a full scholarship to MIT and his doctor’s degree at Stanford and is now a physics professor at a major university in Chicago. My brother finished his state career as the CIO at Social Services. So, I had to beat the odds of Black life in America just to get this opportunity. I do think about this often, especially when I hear about another civil injustice event and how easily that could have happened to me and, unfortunately, it still can!
Techwire: On the personal side, do you have a family? What role have they played in your career?
Rogers: Yes, I am married with three children (Valene, Bryan and RoShaan). They have made many sacrifices so that I could do each of the jobs required during my career, as well as been very supportive. I know that my life experience that I gained with my family made me a more effective leader for the state.
Techwire: Do you have hobbies? If you retired full-time today, how would you spend your days?
Rogers: With my career and family commitments, I gave up most of my hobbies. I plan to spend a lot of time with family and getting back into golfing. I bought some electric bikes for my wife and me, and plan to explore several states with them. Lastly, I plan to be more active in the community and the youth programs.
