Hawaii’s Chief Information Officer Wins National Award

Gov. Neil Abercrombie’s office announced today that Hawaii’s Chief Information Officer Sanjeev “Sonny” Bhagowalia would be receiving a “Federal 100 Award” by Federal Computer Week magazine.

The honor highlights the State of Hawaii for transforming its technology infrastructure, as implemented by Bhagowalia and the newly created Office of Information Management and Technology (OIMT).

Hawaii is the only state government in the nation to receive such an award this year.

The “Fed 100 Awards” recognize leaders in industry, academia and government working to improve government information systems in 2012.

“Sonny has built confidence and momentum across government agencies, industry leaders, and the people of Hawaii toward modernizing our state’s aging technology infrastructure and systems…” said Gov. Abercrombie in a statement released to the media.

Abercrombie appointed Bhagowalia as Hawaii’s first CIO in 2011.

Bhagowalia was tasked with updating the state’s information technology systems, some of which were up to 30 years out of date at the time of his hiring.