Three technology leaders from Los Angeles County government will be among the speakers when members of Industry Insider — California gather in Hacienda Heights this week for a Member Briefing.
The gathering will run from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Thursday at the Hacienda Heights Community Center, 1234 Valencia Ave.
Los Angeles County is the nation’s most populous county, with an overall annual budget of more than $42 billion and an estimated IT budget of more than $850 million.
Among the speakers will be Jeramy Gray, chief deputy in the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk’s Office. Gray, a frequent speaker and panelist at industry conferences and forums, has held numerous senior IT executive roles in his public-sector career. With over 20 years of IT experience, he has served as CIO for four departments in county government. Before taking his current role, Gray was the chief deputy and executive officer for the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors.
Gray is a longtime executive with the county, dating to June 2007, and his education includes studies in business administration with a concentration in information technology at California State University, Dominguez Hills.
Gray was featured in October 2022 in an Industry Insider — California “One-on-One” interview. Of interest to vendors, he cited his work on the new Los Angeles Countywide Enterprise Technology Strategic Plan, which is available online.
“We will start really focusing harder on our data management and data science programs within the department,” he said in that interview.
Also speaking will be Mohammed Al Rawi, the award-winning CIO for the Los Angeles County Public Defender’s Office who previously spearheaded revolutionary technologies for the county Department of Parks and Recreation.
Al Rawi was named one of Government Technology* magazine’s Top 25 Doers, Dreamers and Drivers in 2018. An annual tradition since 2002, the awards are given to technology leaders who have put their knowledge to work to solve problems and serve their communities. Al Rawi is also the recipient of an Outstanding IT Project award from Government Technology and a Best of California award from the Center for Digital Government*. He has served since 2018 as chairman of the County of Los Angeles Innovation and Emerging Technology Commission.
Al Rawi was featured in an Industry Insider “One-on-One” interview last year, and in November 2022 he spoke at Government Technology’s Los Angeles Digital Government Summit with Los Angeles County Public Defender Ricardo García.
Al Rawi has been CIO for the Los Angeles County Public Defender’s Office since March 2019, a role he took after having served as CIO for the L.A. County Parks and Recreation Department since December 2016. He began working in government as the IT deputy and then as deputy for technology and innovation for the L.A. County Board of Supervisors.
A native of Iraq, Al Rawi began his career as the IT and technical director in the Los Angeles Times’ Baghdad bureau. He received his bachelor’s degree in computer science from California State University, Los Angeles, and his Executive Leadership certification from the University of Southern California’s Sol Price School of Public Policy.
Also speaking will be David Cardenas, deputy director of the Operations Support Bureau and acting CIO for L.A. County’s Department of Public Health. With more than two decades in public health and information technology, Cardenas has an extensive history of leadership and expertise. His responsibilities encompass a broad spectrum of services, including directing the department’s IT infrastructure, managing a $2 billion budget, overseeing more than 60 facilities, supervising contracts and grants, procuring essential goods and services and guiding human resources for a workforce of more than 5,000.
Cardenas holds a master’s degree in public health with a focus on epidemiology from the University of California, Los Angeles and a Juris Doctorate from Loyola University Chicago School of Law with a certification in health law.
More information and a registration link are available online.
*The Center for Digital Government and Government Technology are part of e.Republic, parent company of Industry Insider — California.
