Bill Smith

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

Shortly after assuming this position, Bill played a key role in technology related response to the global pandemic. During his tenure, the State of Alaska executive branch has made significant strides in enabling secure remote access for employees, drastically reducing cybersecurity vulnerabilities, actively combating the rapid increase in threat activity, and attacking technical debt within the enterprise.

Bill has over 30 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.

After retiring from the Army, Bill chose to stay in Alaska 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. Following a military career taking them around the globe, they have enjoyed raising their family and making their home in the Last Frontier.