City of Ottawa again looking for a new chief information officer
OttawaSun.com
Jan 21, 2019
Jon Willing

The revolving door for chief information officers at the City of Ottawa keeps on spinning.

Saad Bashir is leaving city hall as of Jan. 25. He’s being nominated as chief technology officer in Seattle, Wash.

Bashir was appointed as Ottawa’s CIO in 2016 after city manager Steve Kanellakos was hired.

Saad Bashir, seen here in a 2014 file photo, is leaving the City of Ottawa staff for a post in Seattle, Wash. JULIE OLIVER / Postmedia

Bashir had previously been in charge of the city’s economic development branch, but he had studied computer engineering at Queen’s University and worked in various technology jobs before swerving into economic development.

Corporate services general manager Marian Simulik informed council of Bashir’s departure earlier this week. She has appointed Sandro Carlucci, the SAP solutions manager, as acting CIO.

Before Bashir was tapped to take over the technology program at Ottawa City Hall, the city had a tough time keeping anyone in the CIO post for an extended period of time.

Even the city’s auditor general noted this, observing in 2015 that the city had churned through eight CIOs since 2004. The technology bosses either left for other jobs or retired.

The CIO is in charge of all computer systems for the corporation, including servers, desk computers and mobile phones, on top of protecting the city against cyber threats. It’s one of the few departments that impacts every area of the corporation.

In a 2017 interview, Bashir said his goal was to bring more respect to the information technology department at city hall.