{"id":271486,"date":"2026-04-16T22:15:13","date_gmt":"2026-04-16T22:15:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/271486\/"},"modified":"2026-04-16T22:15:13","modified_gmt":"2026-04-16T22:15:13","slug":"cdfas-information-technology-team-celebrates-major-wins-at-the-2026-california-public-sector-cio-academy-awards","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/271486\/","title":{"rendered":"CDFA’s Information Technology Team Celebrates Major Wins at the 2026 California Public Sector CIO Academy Awards"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Congratulations to all of our California Department of Food and Agriculture<\/a> (CDFA) Information Technology (IT) Services Division award recipients and teams recognized at the 2026 CIO Academy Awards! Your dedication, expertise, and leadership continue to drive progress across the agency.<\/p>\n

Yesterday evening, CDFA\u2019s IT division was proud to share an extraordinary moment of recognition at the culmination of the two-day California Public Sector CIO Academy 2026<\/a> held at the SAFE Credit Union Convention Center in Sacramento, California.<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s event highlighted some of the most impactful public sector technology leaders and teams across the state, and California\u2019s agriculture state agency\u2013stood out with multiple awards recognizing leadership, innovation, cybersecurity advancement, and service excellence.<\/p>\n

\u201cCongratulations IT team! I am so proud of Fred and our entire CDFA IT office. Since his appointment in June 2024, Fred has led significant IT transformations for the Agency and the Division he oversees, guided by his vision, innovation, leadership, and collaboration. Fred led the effort to transfer an essential IT contract from an outside department and DGS to CDFA, as the current contract was about to expire. These achievements represent far more than awards \u2014 they reflect our agency\u2019s commitment to enabling better services for California\u2019s agricultural community, including collaboration across teams and divisions, innovation in solving complex technology challenges, strong cybersecurity and operational resilience, and public service driven by our mission,\u201d said CDFA Secretary Karen Ross<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A Landmark Year for CDFA IT<\/p>\n

CDFA IT received an exceptional set of honors, including:<\/p>\n

CIO of the Year for CDFA Agency CIO Fredrick Gomez<\/p>\n

Two California IT Team Leadership Awards<\/p>\n

Two Individual Leadership Awards<\/p>\n

\u201cThese recognitions reflect not only individual excellence but the collective strength, collaboration, and commitment of CDFA\u2019s technology workforce in advancing the department\u2019s mission,\u201d said Fredrick Gomez, CDFA\u2019s Chief Information Officer and Director of the Information Technology Services Division.<\/p>\n

CIO of the Year: Leadership Driving Transformation<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>CDFA\u2019s Agency Chief Information Officer, Fredrick Gomez<\/a> (left), was named CIO of the Year, recognizing his visionary leadership and impact on modernizing CDFA\u2019s technology landscape. Pictured right, Jared Johnson
Deputy State Chief Information Officer and Chief Deputy Director, Department of Technology State of California<\/p>\n

Under his leadership, CDFA has accelerated critical transformation efforts, including:<\/p>\n

Replacing legacy systems<\/p>\n

Strengthening cybersecurity across the department<\/p>\n

Driving cost-effective modernization through strategic licensing and cloud initiatives<\/p>\n

Supporting enterprise-wide system upgrades and mission-critical implementations<\/p>\n

Fredrick has also championed key initiatives that improved service delivery efficiency and positioned CDFA for long-term digital resilience. His leadership continues to foster a culture of innovation, accountability, and \u201cOne Team\u201d collaboration across the organization.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith Fred\u2019s leadership, CDFA has achieved transformative advancements in technology and operational efficiency. His visionary leadership has driven major initiatives that advance digital transformation, strengthen cybersecurity, and enhance service delivery,\u201d said Arima Kozina<\/a>, Deputy Secretary of Administration and Finance. \u201cHis accomplishments reflect the qualities of a forward-thinking, results-driven IT executive dedicated to advancing California public sector IT excellence.\u201d<\/p>\n

IT Team Excellence: Strengthening Security and Modernization<\/p>\n

Agency Information Security Office (ISO)<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>CDFA\u2019s Information Security Office received the California IT Team Leadership Award for its significant contributions to strengthening cybersecurity across the department.<\/p>\n

Application Development Support Section (ADSS)<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The Application Development Support Section (ADSS) also received the California IT Team Leadership Award for its outstanding service delivery and modernization efforts.<\/p>\n

Individual Excellence Recognized Across ITSD<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Frederick Janney (left) was recognized for outstanding leadership in IT asset management. After assuming his role, he conducted a comprehensive audit of existing tracking processes and improved efficiency. Working closely with the IT Asset Management Office (ITAMO), he helped implement Lean-based process improvements. His work has strengthened operational discipline and improved resource management across CDFA<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Tony Woo (left) was honored for his exceptional contributions to infrastructure engineering and operational excellence. His accomplishments include, supporting enterprise security, network infrastructure, as well as designing and implementing a broadband solution for remote border stations with limited connectivity. Tony\u2019s technical expertise and problem-solving leadership continue to enhance system reliability and connectivity for critical CDFA operations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Congratulations to all of our California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) Information Technology (IT) Services Division award…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":271487,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,8,117827,117828,117829,117830],"class_list":{"0":"post-271486","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-california","8":"tag-california","9":"tag-california-headlines","10":"tag-california-news","11":"tag-cdfa-information-technology","12":"tag-cdfa-it","13":"tag-cio-academy","14":"tag-cio-awards"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271486","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=271486"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271486\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/271487"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=271486"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=271486"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=271486"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}