Veteran Big-City IT Leader Takes Role With SF Startup

Miguel Gamiño Jr., the former executive vice president and head of global cities at Mastercard, will become the chief experience officer and founding partner at Simplicity Technology. The Silicon Valley-based startup developed the Simplicity app, which focuses on streamlining the online relationship between government and constituents through tailored content and alerts.
Gamiño’s experience with the public sector runs deep. Before joining Mastercard in 2018, he served as chief technology officer for New York City and was also the chief information officer in San Francisco, where he led the 2014 launch of a free Wi-Fi project along Market Street.

“[The Simplicity platform] offers the opportunity to really affect trust and transparency between the government and its residents and constituents, in a time when it’s really important to do so,” Gamiño told Government Technology.*

“This platform gives governments the opportunity to speak directly to constituencies, and those constituencies to hear from the parts of government that matter to them the most,” he added. “Because those services are critical often, to their daily lives, whether it’s road closures or public health information, or even events that might be going on around sustainability, or other things that are important to them in the their life in the city.”

At Mastercard, Gamiño developed the City Possible program, which helps to grow public-private partnerships among cities and tech providers.

The project, which now includes more than 300 cities and other public-sector organizations, will continue its work, Gamiño said, adding that it was “just time to move on to the next chapter.”

The project has helped to “change the landscape of public-private partnerships to produce really improved outcomes by way of those partnerships, leveraging the strengths of the private sector and the strengths and responsibility of the public sector, aimed at these kind of urban challenges,” said Gamiño.

Officials at Simplicity pointed to Gamiño’s two-decade career in working with government as some of the talents he will bring to the startup.

“We developed a unique solution which affects every resident’s daily life in a city,” said Juraj Gago, co-founder of Simplicity. “With Miguel’s rich experience in the industry, we will be able to help a city of any size to utilize the app to its fullest potential.”

*This story first appeared in Government Technology magazine, Industry Insider — California’s sister publication.