State IT Leader Makes a Move

A familiar face in the technology landscape, appearing on podcasts and a regular at webinars and speaking engagements, is making a move.

Krishna Edathil announced that he has taken on the chief technology officer duties and an assistant commissioner title at the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Boad (THECB). The position is part of the Solutions and Services Team under Agency Operations, said an agency spokesperson.

He had served as division director of enterprise solution services at the Department of Information Resources (DIR) starting in 2019.

While there, Edathil was practice lead for DIR’s Artificial Intelligence Center of Excellence (AI-CoE) and team lead of the Texas Cloud Tiger Team, established to “help accelerate cloud adoption through a new level of collaboration,” according to the agency website.

He also oversaw the Prioritization of Cybersecurity and Legacy Systems Projects (PCLS) reporting, due every two years to the Legislature. Edathil was key in the agency’s implementation of HB 1890 and the state’s Legacy Modernization Strategy.

The mission of THECB “is to serve as a resource, partner, and advocate for Texas higher education, resulting in a globally competitive workforce that positions Texas as an international leader,” according to its website.

In December’s Texas State of Higher Education Address, Commissioner Harrison Keller highlighted state accomplishments during his tenure, and they included digital and data efforts.

“We’ve awarded grants to dozens of public and private colleges and universities to accelerate digital learning,” he said. “This work by teams of faculty innovators is rapidly expanding the state library of Open Educational Resources available at no cost to students. We’re also supporting exciting new collaborations among our colleges and universities to share and enhance the digital content they use to support faculty.”

He also shared that the agency has been “working with the governor’s Tri-Agency Workforce Initiative, higher education institutions, and private philanthropy to modernize our state educational and workforce data infrastructure. This will enable us to streamline and automate the collection and reporting of higher education and workforce data to inform decisions and drive improvement.”

THECB didn’t elaborate on what projects Edathil will shepherd through, although it is working to modernize systems and has been working on ApplyTexas system development, according to recent requests for information and requests for proposals. The bid titled “Data Modernization Initiative Public Portal” was awarded in April to Forum One Communications in Colorado.