Behnke has been CIO for the last 10 of his 15 years with the city, and he worked in the private sector before that.
In a concise but comprehensive interview, Mike Driessen, Industry Insider’s publisher and vice president of Subscription Services for parent company e.Republic, talked with Behnke about the scope of his role, his background, and how the city uses managed services to augment its own internal IT operations.
Behnke, a frequent speaker at industry forums and conferences, was previously featured in a One-on-One interview with Industry Insider in which he discussed how the CIO role has changed to become more aligned with the business and strategy of organizations. And in the case of San Diego, that’s a sprawling organization:
- Behnke’s department serves 13,000 technology users.
- With a population of 1.4 million, the growing city government has an annual IT budget of about $137 million.
- Behnke’s department oversees and manages the technology for a host of functions, including data center, cloud, some utilities, a call center and web services.
Behnke is an alumnus of the University of Wisconsin and Wisconsin Lutheran College, where he received his bachelor’s degree in business administration.
He will be among the speakers at the San Diego Digital Government Summit* June 27.
*The Digital Government Summits are hosted by Government Technology, Industry Insider — California’s sister publication.
