​Ying Chan
Chairman of the Board

As a C-Level executive in the public and private sectors Ying offers invaluable insights and knowledge to the CFT membership for Strategy development, relationship alignment and policy development.  Ying served as Chief of IT Operations (CITO) and Deputy Director for IT at the City of Austin. Ying also served as the CITO at the Texas Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC) as well as the CIO for the Texas Department of Assistive Rehabilitative Services (DARS) and the Texas Department of Aging and Disability Services (DADS).  Prior to Public Service Ying enjoyed a highly successful career in the private sector as an IT executive at Motorola, Freescale Semiconductor, Maxim Integrated and Fairchild Semiconductor.
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Deborah Giles
Founder 

Deborah Giles is responsible for aligning key governmental relationships and shaping policy on behalf of the members of CFT. Deborah brings to CFT more than 20 years of first-hand experience working with government entities. She has a long record of accomplishments in both the public and private sectors and has built an extensive network of working relationships.
A government relations consultant for many years, Deborah has successfully consulted for many Fortune 500 corporations. She also worked in the U.S. Congress for the Committee on Banking and Financial Services. She served as a Chief of Staff for several members in the Texas Legislature, as well as Chief Operating Officer and Deputy Inspector General for the Texas Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC).

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Executive Advisors

Rosa Akhtarkhavari

Rosa Akhtarkhavari has worked for the City of Orlando for over 25 years, and currently serves as the Chief Information Officer.

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Amanda Crawford

Amanda Crawford is the Executive Director of Department of Information Resources (DIR) and serves as the CIO for the State of Texas. She is responsible for the overall leadership, direction, and daily operations of DIR including protecting the state's data and critical technology infrastructure, managing a multi-billion dollar cooperative contracts program, and providing strategic technology leadership, solutions, and innovation to all levels of Texas government.​
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Rajiv Rao

Rajiv Rao is the Chief Technology Officer for the New York State Office of Information Technology Services. He is an IT executive veteran with 23+ years of experience and is responsible for the building and operation of all core infrastructure services, engineering, architecture, and advancing standards, as well as exploring long-term technology objectives that deliver enormous value to New York such as containerization, data analytics, machine learning, and artificial intelligence.

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Sam Segran

Sam Segran is the CIO and Vice President for IT at Texas Tech University. He has been active in the field for over 30 years.

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Pat Snow

Pat Snow was appointed Interim CIO for the State of South Dakota in March 2018. As the CIO, he also serves as Commissioner for the Bureau of Information and Telecommunications (BIT). 

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Jim Weaver

Jim is the Secretary and State CIO for North Carolina.  He is the former Director and State CIO for Washington Technology Solutions. He has over 32 years of experience in the IT industry, most notably as the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania’s Chief Technology Officer.

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