Teri Takai is a Senior Advisor with the Center for Digital Government and was previously the CIO and EVP of Meridian Health Plan, Teri Takai also served as the Department of Defense Chief Information Officer (DoD CIO) from October, 2010 through May, 2014. In this capacity, she served as the principal advisor to the Secretary of Defense for Information Management/Information Technology and Information Assurance as well as non-intelligence space systems, critical satellite communications, navigation, and timing programs, spectrum and telecommunications.
She provided strategy, leadership, and guidance to create a unified information management and technology vision for the Department. Prior to this federal political appointment, Ms. Takai served as Chief Information Officer for the State of California. As California’s CIO, Ms. Takai led more than 130 CIOs and 10,000 IT employees spread across the state’s different agencies, departments, boards, commissions, and offices.
