Our Leadership Team

Assistant Chief Information Officer and Chief Technology Officer

Ed Althof, Executive Director

Data Center Services * Information Security * Strategy, Innovation & Architecture

  • Executive Management position reports directly to the County’s Chief Information Officer
  • Responsible for carrying out enterprise Information Technology strategic initiatives in support of the services provided to County departments
  • In the CIO's absence, this position serves as head of OCIT by managing and carrying out the functions of the department

Administrative Services

Thuy Vu-Le, Director

​Budget & Finance * Finance & Accounting * Contracts & Procurement * Vendor Management * Human Resources

Budget & Finance
  • Continue refining OCIT's service delivery cost models and rate structures to provide more long-term cost predictability and stability to our customers.
  • Expand OCIT's strategic financial planning efforts by streamlining identification and earmarking of funds related to infrastructure projects, technology refreshes, and operational service provider transition costs.
  • Continue to improve the OCIT Dashboard and Billing Portal to allow for increased financial transparency within OCIT and to our customers.
  • Expand use of available software functionality and tools to further optimize OCIT's budget and accounting processes.
Contracts & Procurement
  • Provide procurement services and guidance for OCIT and customers to support their business goals and objectives.
  • Continue to seek creative sourcing strategies while ensuring that procurement activities are conducted in a fair, competitive, efficient and ethical manner.
  • Provide cross-training among procurement team members to offer them a broader and more comprehensive knowledge of the goods and services that OCIT procures.
Vendor Management
  • Continue to build and support County's relationship with our Managed Services provider to ensure accountability and service delivery consistency.
  • Ensure our Managed Services provider meets its contractual obligations and maintains compliance with County policies and procedures.

Client Services

Jim Mata, Director

Business Analysis * Project Management Office * Relationship Management * Stakeholder Communications

  • Support the efforts of the OCIT Project Management Office (PMO) to ensure departmental projects are high-value and cost and resource efficient.
  • Continue promoting a "customer-first" culture and partnering with our customers to align IT with business priorities and remain responsive to new needs.
  • Promote the use of data to inform customers and citizens of the value Information Technology.
  • Work with customers to respond and adapt the "new normal" for their operations.
  • Assist customers with financial and implementation planning in support of key OCIT initiatives such as cybersecurity, cloud storage and backup, remote access standardization, virtual desktop infrastructure, Microsoft 365, etc.
  • Complete implementation of the OCIT Customer Dashboard. Tailor metrics to customer areas of interest where possible.
  • Implement automated testing tools that will streamline testing of customer software, reduce costs, and raise IT product value.
  • Support ongoing training, development, and succession planning of OCIT staff, and as much as possible create new career growth and advancement opportunities.
  • Continually look for opportunities to integrate the individual Client Services teams to maximize efficiency and value in IT service delivery.

E-Gov Software Applications

Jayesh Patel, Director

Application Development & Support * Website Development & Support

  • Continue to migrate applications to Cloud platforms. 
  • Prepare application roadmap for TTC and modernize legacy applications based on the roadmap.
  • Migrate remaining SharePoint On-Premise instances to SharePoint Online
  • Provide Virtual Kiosk solutions to Probation office locations utilizing portable devices to access Virtual Kiosk and its functions.
  • Provide text messaging services within existing applications to communicate with external clients (probationer and/or guardian) and internal clients to broadcast/remind clients of important information and achieve portability of communication within the organization.
  • Complete deployment of OC Safety to all County agencies. 
  • Provide support for the migration of CalWIN to CalSAWS.
  • Develop Tax Payment web application using modern platforms.
  • Upgrade the current OCPW Fleet management system from a Windows application to a Web application and integrate Fleet billing into the new system. 
  • Continue ongoing development efforts for the OCPW Land Management System (LMS) to include OC Time integration and permitting revision and package processing enhancements 
  • Develop and deploy modern, interactive HR analytics platform using Power BI that allows the Human Resources (HR) and Finance teams to track, analyze and report on HR KPIs such as hires; separations; employee tenure; vacant / filled / dual fill positions; percentage of past-due reviews; promotions; reductions; transfers; employee demographics; and leave utilization.

Data Center Services

Ray O'Grady, Director

​Data Center Services * End User Delivery & Support * IT Standards * Managed Services Delivery * Physical Security * Servers & Storage

  • Enroll in training opportunities and share knowledge to strengthen skillsets for the advancement of the team and the County
  • Modernize infrastructure and services with Enterprise standards
    • Migrate to Pure Storage and Rubrik backup archives to Azure
    • Standardize server infrastructure to Cloud and a new on-premise platform
    • Deliver an authenticated print management solution with mobility workflows and reduce the County's local print infrastructure 
    • Standardize on fewer VPN solutions
    • Complete budgeted surveillance migrations to Genetec
    • Integrate the Lenel badge system with Microsoft Identity Manager (MIM)
    • Develop an SMS module to track software licenses
    • Provide a repository of standard desktop hardware and peripherals that meet customer needs
  • Enhance change management SMS forms and processes through Change 2.0 and ensure proper incident management of SMS tickets
  • Complete NTT's launch of the new Board Hearing Room and the PIO News Room at County Administration North (CAN)
  • Complete maintenance projects at the OC Data Center to replace the roof, Computer Room Air Handler (CRAH) units, UPS capacitors, and batteries

Information Security

Andrew Alipanah, Director

County Privacy Officer * Cyber Resilience * County Service Continuity * ​IT Forensics * Security Operations

  • Continue to mature our Security Operations Center capabilities. Establish a Security Orchestration Automation and Response (SOAR) competence to reduce security analyst's fatigue and leverage the MITRE ATT&CK (Adversarial Tactics, Techniques, and Common Knowledge) framework to better equip our Cybersecurity experts to fight the ever increasing threats at the County
  • Increase our capabilities to better support and protect our remote workforce and establish controls to better protect the increased Cybersecurity perimeter as more business applications are deployed/moved to mobile and cloud services
  • Improve our Disaster Recovery services capabilities and continue to develop our Business Continuity program across participating departments
  • Enhance our Data Loss Prevention capabilities to our current Data-In-motion (Internet Traffic, Electronic Mail, Mobile/Cloud workloads) services as well as data-at-rest and data-in-use

Strategy, Innovation & Architecture

Tom Laguna, Director

Architecture * Cable & Circuit Management * Cable & Voice * Network & VoIP * Cloud Architecture & Solutions Management

  • ​Define architecture frameworks.
    • Maintain, improve Azure cloud network architecture, and define agency network subscription provisioning reference architecture.
    • Develop OC Data Center new service/application network reference architecture.
  • Develop and adopt Countywide platforms (including cloud) architecture, standards, governance, and best practices. Provide frameworks to IT Governance for review and approval.
  • Develop a secure, scalable infrastructure for an enterprise-wide business intelligence platform and solutions to meet current and future Countywide needs.
  • Oversee Network Managed Services Provider to ensure they are providing OCIT and its customers with quality services as defined by the Managed Service Agreement and the associated SLRs. 
  • Enable customers to leverage modern applications and cloud services.
  • Participate in webinars and other training opportunities to enhance expertise and knowledge of Information Technology trends, best practices, and strategies that could benefit both the team and the County.
  • Work with OCIT managers to define and develop roadmaps around OCIT's four technology strategies: Cloud, Mobility, Open Data, and Infrastructure.
  • Provide guidance, processes, and plans to County staff to enable overall productivity anytime, anywhere, and from any device.
  • Develop online training, training documentation, education decks, technical "cookbooks", communications plans, project guidance, and test validation plans for use by departments in implementing commonly used enabling technologies.