Hardik Bhatt

Hardik Bhatt rejoined to public sector when he became the State of Illinois CIO in March 2015. As the State CIO, he works with all state agencies to align, utilize and streamline technology usage to fit to their business priorities in order 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 was a Senior Director with Cisco and lead the market development function for Internet of Everything for Global Public Sector. As part of that, Hardik worked with Mayors, Governors and CIOs to help them extract value by connecting the unconnected public assets like parking spots, trashcans, streetlights, etc. 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.