Hardik Bhatt

Hardik Bhatt is the Secretary Designate of the newly formed Department of Innovation and Technology and the Illinois State CIO in Governor Rauner’s cabinet. Hardik leads 1,700 IT employees and over $1B of technology budget, including a P&L, for digital transformation of Illinois government.

Previously, Hardik was Senior Director with Cisco and led market development of Internet of Everything for the Global Public Sector. He worked with mayors, governors, and prime ministers around the globe to extract value by connecting public assets. Prior to that, Hardik was the CIO for the City of Chicago and Commissioner for the Department of Innovation and Technology. Hardik also built and led the Smart Chicago program, which is considered a national model. Before joining the City of Chicago, Hardik worked with Oracle Corporation in the US and Tata Consultancy Services in India.

Hardik has an MBA from Northwestern University’s Kellogg Graduate School of Management and a bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from M. S. University, Baroda, India.