As part of Industry Insider — Texas’ ongoing efforts to inform readers on state and local government, their IT plans and initiatives, here’s the latest in our periodic series of interviews with departmental IT leaders.
George Stolard has served as chief information officer for the Texas Alcoholic and Beverage Commission (TABC) for a year and a half, but his career in public-sector IT spans two decades. His career previously focused on cybersecurity within the TABC and the Texas General Land Office. He was also in IT and GIS roles at the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.
The give and take of the days, constant new developments in IT and opportunity to serve constituents are all part of his drive, as he discusses below.
Stolard holds CISSP, CISA and PMP credentials and earned certificates in project management, business analysis and IT project management from The George Washington University in Washington, D.C., He has a computer science degree from Quincy University in Illinois and studied art therapy at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville.
Like other state regulatory agencies, the TABC has a variety of customers. It regulates all alcohol sales, taxation, importation, manufacturing, transporting and advertising within the state; it also oversees alcohol manufacturing and brewing permits, licenses and audits.
Industry Insider — Texas: As CIO of your organization, how do you describe your role? How have the role and responsibilities of the CIO changed in recent years?
Stolard: I describe the role of the CIO as one who presents a comprehensive IT strategy based on the strengths and weaknesses of staff and business needs. Technology is always changing. That was one of the reasons that pulled me into IT so many decades ago. I think what has changed about the role is the pace at which technology improves around the role, not the role itself. For example, artificial intelligence is a very hot topic right now, but fundamentally it is not different from bringing in any other new software product. It should be thoroughly tested before widespread adoption or before the automation of certain tasks that is given to AI in order to ensure it operates correctly.
IITX: What projects are you planning for the upcoming years in the biennium?
Stolard: Our big projects center around data and equipping our customers with more self-service resources. We are trying to hire and train staff to be better equipped to respond to data-centric questions and interpret future needs based on the data we have. In addition, we aim to create an environment where our customers are trained and equipped to leverage our tools to get their business needs met — rather than coming to IT for every change. This approach allows for a better quality of questions and answers as IT continues to have to adapt for our customers to get the very best.
IITX: In your tenure in this position, which project or achievement would you like to highlight?
Stolard: This is a great question. Unfortunately, at this point there is no single achievement I would like to highlight. I have been in the role about 18 months and what I do enjoy is the collaborative mindset our executive leadership has set forth. I appreciate that our leadership tries to empower each division to improve and find new ways to offer more value to our customers, peers and the people of Texas. I think this mindset has opened numerous opportunities for improvements that might be harder to calculate.
IITX: How do you define “digital transformation”? How far along is your organization in that process, and how will you know when it’s finished?
Stolard: For the TABC, digital transformation was the process of converting from a paper or manual process to incorporating all the digital opportunities to automate processes. TABC set forth a bold technology transformation initiative to eliminate paper from the licensing processes and help Texans get into business faster. The overall time it takes to issue an original license/permit has dropped from 52 days in fiscal year 2018 to an average of 35 in fiscal year 2023.
As far as when we will consider the transformation finished, that date will always be moving further out because there will always be opportunities to improve or incorporate technology into a new or current process. While I believe we will achieve important milestones in terms of improving our service to Texas, I also believe we can continually find new ways to be better. In short, our transformation will never be truly “finished.”
IITX: What is your estimated IT budget, and how many employees do you have? What is the agency’s overall budget?
Stolard: TABC has about 24 full-time employees who work in IT, though we are working hard to increase that number. Our IT budget is currently in flux as we begin the process of asking the Texas Legislature to fund various business needs and improvements — including full-time positions — over the next budgetary cycle.
IITX: What do you think is the greatest technology challenge in Texas?
Stolard: I believe the greatest technology challenge in Texas is probably the dynamic investment Texas has from different businesses. There are a lot of different businesses in Texas, meaning there is a huge variety of technological expectations.
IITX: What advice would you give to someone who would like to lead an IT department?
Stolard: Do it! I would encourage anyone who has an interest to “help out.” The best way is to find a way to be helpful. That really sets the foundation of the selfless work that leadership takes. I do not believe there is a magic bullet; I think it’s mostly about understanding the goals and helping achieve them as your schedule and interests allow.
IITX: How do you prefer to be contacted by vendors, including via social media such as LinkedIn?
Stolard: I prefer vendors to reach out on the weekends. Having some calm moments to allow yourself to absorb the information a vendor is trying to share takes time. Sending your engagement emails on the weekend allows for a natural grouping and gives a perfect chance to read an entire email so you can formulate a concise response.
IITX: How might vendors best educate themselves before meeting with you?
Stolard: Another great question; I think just being familiar with the agency would be a great first step. I think a missed opportunity with vendors is that they may not know what an agency does, and instead of learning that mission statement of an agency, they approach an agency as a “one solution can fit them all,” and that is a missed opportunity for a vendor to provide a service or product that is very helpful and sticky within that IT environment.
IITX: What conferences do you attend?
Stolard: Texas Association of State Systems for Computing and Communications (TASSCC) is a great conference I attend. TASSCC has a large annual conference every year. I’ve found great value in that conference.
Another one that is hosted by the Department of Information Resources (DIR) is the Information Security Forum (ISF). This is a security conference I find to be a great resource for networking and staying up to date on cybersecurity threats impacting the state government sector.
I have also attended Black Hat, which is a private industry annual security conference. It is much more expensive than TASSCC, so I am hoping to go every few years. Black Hat provides a more comprehensive cybersecurity landscape threat assessment. It has trainings and great keynote speakers very much worth the price and time.
IITX: What do you read to stay abreast of developments in the government technology/SLED sector?
Stolard: Books. As a friendly refresher, books are a classical resource that fell out of fashion with technological advances, but I find them incredibly informative. All jokes aside, I try to stay up to date by engaging with my CIO peers, reading security books, articles, RSS feeds and reading the industry announcements.
IITX: What do you do to unplug in your downtime?
Stolard: I am a big fan of live music, science fiction movies, hiking with my dog Rosetta and global soccer. I am very excited for the FIFA World Cup being hosted in the Americas in 2026. Between these activities, I tend to have some level of motivation to get outside and see the beautiful world outside of my computer screen.
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