Former Massachusetts CIO returns

Louis Gutierrez, a former Massachusetts chief information officer, has been reappointed to that position by Thomas Trimarco, the commonwealth’s administration and finance secretary. Gutierrez served as the state’s CIO from 1996 to 1998.

Currently the chief technology strategist at the Commonwealth Medicine division of the University of Massachusetts Medical School, Gutierrez will replace acting CIO Bethann Pepoli, who will become deputy CIO. Gutierrez’ appointment is effective Feb. 6.

Pepoli was named acting CIO after Peter Quinn’s resignation during a controversy about the Open Document format that the state will adopt by January 2007. The state plans to switch to an open-source format for text documents, presentations, charts, spreadsheets and other types of documents. Gutierrez will oversee that conversion.

Before taking the position at the medical school, Gutierrez was CIO in the state’s Executive Office of Health and Human Services where he led the development and implementation of Virtual Gateway, a portal that integrates 16 state agencies’ Web sites.

“The Virtual Gateway is an example of how state government computing can be transformed through the application of open standards that interoperate with many kinds of technology and vendors,” Gutierrez said in a press release. “As technology continues to evolve, there remain substantial opportunities to transform services and a need to plan for the long-term future of technology-infused operations.”

Gutierrez worked for the Exeter Group of information technology consultants as a principal and held various IT positions, including vice president, chief technology officer and CIO at Harvard Pilgrim Health Care. He is a former deputy director for technology planning and standards at the Federal Reserve.