Bill Smith began his current role as State of Alaska Chief Information Officer in November 2019. In this position, he is responsible for the direction of the Office of information Technology, managing all information technology services and related resources within the executive branch of the State, and providing strategic oversight of the State enterprise systems and infrastructure.

Bill has over 28 years of experience leading teams of all sizes in both the public and private sectors. During his successful career in the United States Army, he was a lead participant in several high-level Headquarters, Department of the Army projects involving operational forecasting, and national force structure. Additionally, he was called upon to direct combat military operations and develop an innovative aviation organization and training program to meet critical Army intelligence collection requirements.

Bill chose to stay in Alaska after he retired from the Army and entered the private sector with a major Alaska-based broadband and communications provider. Over the course of several years, he served in senior product, project and program management roles, covering the spectrum of technology solutions provided to business, consumer, and government agencies in Alaska. In his role as the Senior Manager of Customer Support, Bill redesigned the company’s service assurance manager program to provide improved and deeply engaged customer support to strategic partners.

Bill and his wife Jo have three children and have resided in Alaska for over 13 years.