Biography
CIO for the State of Illinois
Hardik Bhatt was appointed the State of Illinois CIO in March 2015. As the State CIO, he works with all state agencies to align, utilize and streamline technology to drive business priorities to transform services provided by State agencies to their constituents. Hardik also leads the Bureau of Computer and Communication Services and is responsible for IT infrastructure, service delivery and governance across the state.
Prior to joining the State of Illinois, Hardik returned to the private sector as a Senior Director with Cisco to lead the market development of the Internet of Everything for the Global Public Sector. He worked with Mayors, Governors, CIOs and Prime Ministers around the globe to extract value by connecting the public assets like parking spots, fleets of vehicles and streetlights. Hardik led Internet of Everything strategy and execution planning with cities such as Hamburg, Rio, Barcelona, Jakarta and many others. Prior to that, Hardik lead Cisco’s Business Development for the Americas for Cisco’s Smart and Connected Communities business.
Hardik joined Cisco in October 2010, after being the Chief Information Officer for the City of Chicago and Commissioner for Chicago Department of Innovation and Technology for 5 years. Hardik also built and lead the Smart Chicago program, which is considered a national model for improving access to affordable broadband in the community, while increasing technology awareness, talent and usage.
Prior to joining the public sector the first time, Hardik worked as a consultant with Oracle Corporation in the US and Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) in India.
Hardik has an MBA from Northwestern University’s Kellogg Graduate School of Management, a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from M. S. University, Baroda, India and lives in Chicago with his wife and two children.