James (Jim) Ryan

State Chief Information Security Officer
State of Arizona
Government Information Technology Agency
Statewide Information Security and Privacy Office

Jim is a team oriented leader with over 20 years experience in the design, development and deployment of business-driven technology strategies and solutions. Jim has served the public sector for many years, notably as the CIO for the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality and, Deputy Director for the Government Information Technology Agency (GITA). Recent projects have included Statewide Standards Compliance Survey reporting, oversight of the first Statewide Information Security and Privacy Assessments, and assistance with the development of business case and legislation to establish the Statewide Information Security and Privacy Office (SISPO) within GITA. Jim also pioneered a partnership with ADOA to generate a statewide Business Intelligence Readiness Report and supported the statewide encryption RFP development. Other work experience in manufacturing and financial services environments provided experience in industrial and performance engineering, vendor selection, SDLC project management, quality assurance, forecasting, systems migration and business process re-engineering.

Jim joined GITA in April 2002 as the Deputy Director, and is concurrently the Homeland Security Technology Manager for GITA and the Interim Chief Information Security Officer for SISPO. As the Homeland Security Manager, primary responsibilities include statewide continuity of operations planning, annual statewide strategic standards compliance and gap closure reporting, and Incident Response Reporting Remediation. As the interim CISO of SISPO, roles and responsibilities focus on strategic alignment of IT Security and Privacy strategies, compliance enforcement and metrics, statewide privacy and security risk management, and Incident Response remediation and mitigation. Prior to working for the State of Arizona, Jim worked for American Express, Solar Turbines, and Ford Motor Company in a variety of management and engineer capacities.

Ryan received a Bachelor of Business Administration from Western Michigan University, has successfully completed the Solar Turbines Management and Ford Motor Company CO-OP Programs and recently obtained his MBA in Management from Argosy University.  Jim is currently working on a Doctor of Business Administration (D.B.A.) with an emphasis in Sustainability Management.  Jim serves as the Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center (MS-ISAC) Coordinator for the state.

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