Mark Combs, Vermont’s first chief technology and enterprise services officer, is preparing for retirement but will remain in his position until the state secures a replacement, a spokesperson for the Agency of Digital Services confirmed on Thursday.
Combs, whose retirement was first reported by Government Technology, has been a key figure in Vermont’s technology leadership since 2017, shortly after the establishment of the Agency of Digital Services aimed at centralizing IT functions previously dispersed across various state agencies. Initially appointed as chief technology officer, Combs’ role expanded to encompass broader oversight of enterprise technology services within state government.
The state is currently in the process of recruiting his successor, seeking a “visionary technology leader” to advance statewide strategy, innovation, and operational excellence. Denise Reilly-Hughes, Vermont’s state chief information officer, emphasized in a LinkedIn post that this position is an opportunity for a leader eager to make a meaningful impact, connecting strategy to execution and fostering collaboration across organizational lines.
During his tenure, Combs played a pivotal role in modernizing Vermont’s legacy technology systems and consolidating an inventory of approximately 1,400 major business applications spanning various agencies. At a 2021 online event hosted by VMware, he highlighted how these efforts reflect a broader initiative to modernize IT budgeting, ensuring that cloud services are appropriately sized and eliminating unused resources.
“We’ve been on a journey the last four years of really picking the future and opportunistically moving everybody toward that future,” Combs stated in 2021. “We’ve gone essentially from providing infrastructure as a service to platform as a service and dev-ops as a service.”
Combs also co-chaired the Vermont Council on Artificial Intelligence, which advises state leadership on the adoption and governance of AI technologies. Under the guidance of Josiah Raiche, who has served as the state’s chief data and AI officer since 2024, the council has defined appropriate uses of AI and created a standardized language template for state employees to reference when discussing AI use in their work.
As Vermont prepares for a transition in leadership, the focus on innovation and operational efficiency in technology continues to gain prominence. The search for Combs’ successor is not merely a matter of filling a position but a critical juncture that could shape the future of government technology in Vermont, as the state emphasizes a sustainable and forward-thinking ecosystem.
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