Gov. Schwarzenegger Appoints California's First State CIO; AeA Celebrates Involvement...

Gov. Schwarzenegger Appoints California's First State CIO; AeA Celebrates
Involvement in Bill Creating the Position

SACRAMENTO, Calif. and WASHINGTON, Dec. 6 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Today,
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger announced the appointment of Teresa (Teri)
Takai as California's first Cabinet-level Chief Information Officer (CIO).
This position was created by a bill sponsored by AeA at the behest of its
members long frustrated by their inability to offer IT products and services
to the government overseeing the world's sixth largest economy.

"This is a significant achievement for California and our member companies,"
said Roxanne Gould, Senior Vice President, CA Government & Public Affairs.
"AeA actively pursued this piece of legislation because the high-tech industry
believes an empowered State CIO will have the ability to make California less
risk averse where buying technology is concerned. Given the sheer size of
California, and its tradition of enacting path-breaking legislation, we are
very excited to have been the impetus for this milestone accomplishment."

Since 2003, Takai has served as director of the Michigan Department of
Information Technology (MDIT), where she also serves as the state's chief
information officer. In this position, she has restructured and consolidated
Michigan's resources by merging the state's information technology into one
centralized department to service 19 agencies and over 1,700 employees.
Additionally, during her tenure at the MDIT, Takai has led the state to being
ranked number one four years in a row in digital government by the Center for
Digital Government.

"AeA looks forward to working with Ms. Takai in streamlining California's IT
procurements. Her proven track record as Michigan's State CIO speaks for
itself," added Gould.

California state government, with an annual technology budget of several
billion dollars, is one of the largest potential purchasers of technology in
the world. AeA members have for years sought a California Chief Information
Officer (CIO) with real statutory, enterprise-wide authority to facilitate and
promote technology solutions, bring about a unified technology program
throughout state agencies, and provide accountability for the direction of
technology projects by one of the largest technology purchasers in the world.

"AeA pursued this legislation because our members believe an empowered State
CIO will provide consistency in technological solutions and procurements,"
said Gould. Such a CIO will be able to drive the purchase of the
enterprise-wide applications essential for improving government performance,
reducing fraud, and leveraging existing programs to better serve the citizens
of California, all the while promoting technology as an essential means to
almost every public policy end."

For more information about AeA, please visit www.aeanet.org.

AeA, the nation's largest technology trade association with 2,500 member
companies representing all segments of the high-tech industry, is dedicated
solely to helping our members' top line and bottom line. We do this in
partnership with our small, medium, and large member companies by lobbying
governments at the state, federal, and international levels, providing access
to capital and business opportunities, and offering select business services
and networking programs. For more information, please visit
http://www.aeanet.org.

SOURCE AeA

Anne Caliguiri, Director of Communications of AeA, +1-202-682-4443
anne_caliguiri@aeanet.org or Roxanne Gould, Senior Vice President, California
Public and Legislative Affairs, +1-916-443-9059 x 101
Roxanne_Gould@aeanet.org