When Lloyd was in college, his coursework in urban studies led to a non-medical internship at a hospital in Chicago that became the setting for the NBC trauma-drama series ER. It was the era of health-maintenance organizations, he recalls. Lloyd noticed how doctors were often buried in paperwork, taking time away from their focus on patients. Those doctors “were telling kids not to be doctors, that it wasn’t worth the pay,” says Lloyd, now 48.
That negative impression helped steer him away from a career in medicine and toward technology, another of his core interest areas. He had some useful stops along the way before landing the position of chief technology officer in Seattle earlier this year. He moved north from his job as deputy city manager for San Jose, Calif., where he helped run the largest municipal government in the center of Silicon Valley.
After spending years in IT, helping to run an entire city gave him a wider view of issues and drove home the importance of “working across boundaries and supporting [city employees] on their missions. You have more respect for their jobs, too,” Lloyd says.
One of his former bosses said Lloyd’s professional style brought benefits to San Jose. “He approaches issues and people with a curious mind, never pretending to be the smartest person in the room — even when he often was,” says Sam Liccardo, who served as mayor when Lloyd was San Jose’s chief information officer. “I appreciated that he was an eager co-conspirator in my longstanding efforts to tear down the walls between City Hall and our private sector, to start to engage leaders and employees in the innovation economy.”
During his five years as San Jose’s CIO, Lloyd rebuilt the IT department and was a guiding force in modernizing legacy systems. He emerged as a national leader in areas such as privacy, artificial intelligence and cybersecurity.
Such skills should prove vital in Seattle — and provide inspiration to a newer generation of public-sector technology leaders. In the early 21st century, public-sector technology is not just confined to a single department but touches upon pretty much every issue addressed by local government. Whether it’s homelessness, climate resilience, cybersecurity or public safety, solid data collection and analysis — along with deployment of the newest and most relevant software and other tools — can provide rocket fuel for progress and problem solving.
Lloyd plans to focus on more than the details of tech in Seattle. He wants to serve as an inspiring leader to other public agency tech professionals. His desire underscores how human relations are as vital to successful public-sector tech initiatives as buying the best devices or software.
“Coaching and mentoring matters more than ever,” he says, especially as the best tech talent enjoys multiple career options. He doesn’t want his employees to feel as though they are mere cogs in the machine. “They won’t stay if they don’t feel valued. This is the time that managers make all the difference.”
Find more information about the Public Officials of the Year here. Government Technology is a sister site to Governing. Both are divisions of e.Republic.
