Longtime Tampa Chief Information Officer and Chief Technology Officer Russell Haupert is retiring, ending his 12-year tenure with the city.
Haupert announced his decision via LinkedIn over the weekend, stating, “I’m happy (and maybe a little sad) to announce that after 12 years, I’m retiring from the City of Tampa! We’ve come so far from the sleepy little downtown I saw on my first day in October of 2011— before the Riverwalk, the Stanley Cups, Superbowl Championships and all the other amazing changes that came with the stunning growth of our city.”
In late 2011, Haupert joined the city as a business applications manager, overseeing a 22-member team and an $8 million budget focused on analyzing and improving the city’s technology through software automation and other tech upgrades.
In November 2012, he was promoted to chief information officer and chief technology officer, leading 128 employees within the city’s Technology and Innovation Department.
During his tenure, Haupert directed a $27 million accelerated applications and infrastructure portfolio replacement plan, migrating outdated in-house technology to modern SaaS and cloud infrastructure; oversaw the city’s transition to a new data center with hybrid cloud and virtual server capabilities; and replaced commercial land management, code enforcement and utility billing systems with automated operation applications.
Of these achievements, Haupert shared during an interview with Industry Insider — Florida: “I’m proud of four major changes in how we do business during my tenure: reorganizing our services around our major departments; instituting regular customer meetings to report on results; transparently posting metrics that back up our project, service and uptime results; and lastly, the overall change from the in-house, mainframe development shop to [the] cloud/SaaS/mobile-first enterprise we are today.”
He also shared that he and his team were most recently working on replacing the city’s agenda management and time and attendance systems, implementing a new customer relationship management system and adding a new computerized maintenance management system for the city’s utility department.
As for what’s next for Haupert, he said on LinkedIn: “Stay tuned for my next big thing!”
Russell Haupert Steps Down as Tampa’s CIO and CTO After 12 Years of Service
During his tenure, he oversaw 128 employees within the city’s Technology and Innovation Department, along with a $27 million accelerated applications and infrastructure portfolio replacement.
