CIO
Sanjeev “Sonny” Bhagowalia
On July 6, 2011 Sanjeev “Sonny” Bhagowalia became the State of Hawai‘i’s first Chief Information Officer (CIO) of the Office of Information Management and Technology (OIMT). In his new role, Bhagowalia reports directly to the Governor and has authority over the State’s information technology infrastructure across all areas of State government. He has the ability to raise issues at the highest levels and is responsible for developing and implementing a plan to transform Hawai‘i’s outdated technology infrastructure into a modern system that will make government more efficient and improve services for the people of Hawai‘i.
Bhagowalia previously served as the Deputy Associate Administrator, Office of Citizen Services and Innovative Technologies (OCSIT), U.S. General Services Administration (GSA). At the GSA, Bhagowalia supported the Federal CIO in implementing Government-wide e-Gov and Open Gov programs including Data.gov, Federal Cloud Computing and Federal Data Center Consolidation initiatives, and mobile applications. These programs support OMB’s IT Reform Plan and the Open Government Directive.
Additionally, Bhagowalia served as the CIO of the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) from December 2008 through May 2010. The DOI is a large cabinet agency with 2,400 operating locations across the United States, Puerto Rico, U.S. territories, and freely associated states, supporting over 40 mission areas. During that time, Bhagowalia oversaw an Information Technology (IT) Portfolio of approximately $1 billion. He modernized and unified DOI’s diverse IT environment under its top-rated Enterprise Architecture Program. Bhagowalia also served as the CIO for Indian Affairs (IA), a $2.3 billion sub-agency with 10,000 users within the U.S. DOI from August 2007 until December 2008. Bhagowalia also served as an Information Technology Program Management Executive for the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in the U.S. Department of Justice from July 1999 through August 2007.
In addition to his public sector experience, he also served with distinction for 14 years at Boeing, a Fortune 500 company, from July 1985 until July 1999, as a Senior Principal Engineer in the prestigious Boeing Technical Excellence Fellowship Program in support of Systems Integration and Business Development for U.S. Government Civilian, Defense and Intelligence Community Clients.
Bhagowalia holds a Master of Science (MS) in Information Resource Management, and an MS and Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering. He is also a Distinguished Graduate with a CIO Certificate from the National Defense University and has received numerous awards from U.S. Government and Industry including the Presidential Rank Award for meritorious executive service.