State Parks’ Technology Chief to Be Featured in Techwire Member Briefing

Patrick Dennis, the technology chief for a sprawling department of state government that has more than 4,600 employees and a $900 million budget, will be featured this week in a virtual Techwire Member Briefing.

Dennis is deputy director and chief information officer for the California Department of Parks and Recreation, which contains the largest and most diverse recreational, natural and cultural heritage holdings of any state agency in the nation. The department oversees 279 state park units, over 340 miles of coastline, 970 miles of lake and river frontage, 15,000 campsites, 5,200 miles of trails, 3,195 historic buildings and more than 11,000 known prehistoric and historic archaeological sites.

As CIO, Dennis has overall responsibility for the IT Division activities that support the department’s critical lines of business, which include Park Operations, Law Enforcement, Natural and Cultural Resources, and the Office of Historic Preservation. The IT Division includes the Project Management Office; Application Development; Network and Client Services; Web and Application Development; IT Procurement and Contracting; and IT Infrastructure and Security Services.

Additionally, Dennis is responsible for the development of the departmental IT strategic direction, and technology operational plans in support of business operations.

Before assuming his current role in 2018, Dennis had most recently served as a special projects director for the California Department of Technology, where he began in 2012 and where he held various leadership roles including:

• Section chief in the department’s Statewide Information Technology Project Delivery Office
• Business Integration lead for the State Technology Approval Reform (STAR) Project, where he led efforts to reform the statewide policy supporting the state’s IT Project Approval Lifecycle (PAL)
• Branch manager of CDT’s internal IT operations.

Before joining CDT, Dennis served for nearly 20 years in project implementation and systems testing for the state Franchise Tax Board.

The briefing, which is open only to Techwire members, will run from 1:00 to 1:45 p.m. Wednesday. It will be moderated by Alan Cox, executive vice president of e.Republic and publisher of Techwire and Government Technology. There will be an opportunity for attendees to submit questions during the event.

“The California Department of Parks and Recreation is the largest organization of its type in state government,” Cox told Techwire. “This Techwire virtual Q&A will allow us the opportunity to learn more about the unique role that technology plays in managing over 280 park units throughout the state.”