Two L.A. County Tech Leaders to Speak at Members Briefing

Two technology leaders from Los Angeles County government will be among the speakers when members of Industry Insider — California gather in Hacienda Heights for a Members Briefing.

The gathering will run from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Nov. 9 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 over $42 billion and an estimated IT budget of over $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 in an Industry Insider — California “One-on-One” interview. Of interest to vendors, he cited his work on the new Los Angeles County 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 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 of Science 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.

More speakers will be added to the agenda in coming weeks. 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.

This story has been updated with Jeramy Gray's correct title.