Akhtarkhavari first joined the city in 1992 as an application developer. Since then, she has taken on multiple roles, including serving as an IT financial application manager, IT application administrator, IT strategic support manager, chief security officer and deputy CIO.
In August 2010, she became the city’s CIO and, in November 2021, took on a deputy chief financial officer role, holding both positions until recently.
“The CIO role has evolved in response to the increase of new emerging technology, cyber threats and the impact of COVID-19,” Akhtarkhavari told Industry Insider — Florida in a recent one-on-one interview. “Additionally, there have been major shifts in the industry, including the expectations set for digital services, business reliance on data, supply chain impacts, hiring and retention and new emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence.”
As for projects she and her team were working on at the time, she said, “Our information technology department will continue to focus on building the resiliency of our city operations, such as expanding the cloud data center; ensuring detection, response, containment and recovery of any cyber exposures; and exploring emerging technologies and pilot technologies that enable us to improve our response, planning and decision-making.”
Now, Akhtarkhavari says she’s ready to move on.
“I have fulfilled my mission. You now have skilled and dedicated IT managers, most of whom were mentored internally and came through the ranks,” she wrote in a letter to Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer. “Thank you for trusting me to lead the Information Technology Department; with my retirement, I will now have the time to pursue my personal goals. I will always cherish my time in the city.”
