![\"Dru](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/nys-office-instagram-https-www-142092739.jpg\")
New York\u2019s Director of Information and Technology Services was fired by Gov. Kathy Hochul Sunday.<\/p>\nALBANY \u2013 Gov. Kathy Hochul abruptly fired the Empire State\u2019s top tech official but the reason for the pink slip remains a mystery. <\/p>\n
Information and Technology Services Director Dru Rai was unceremoniously removed by Hochul after serving in the Democratic governor\u2019s administration for three years, a spokesperson confirmed.<\/p>\n
The sacking comes three years after Rai\u2019s predecessor was also given the axe.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe administration has informed Dru Rai that the Governor no longer has confidence in his ability to effectively represent this administration and he was removed from his position,\u201d Hochul spokesperson Kara Cumoletti told The Post.<\/p>\n
New York\u2019s Director of Information and Technology Services was fired by Gov. Kathy Hochul Sunday.<\/p>\n
\u201cGovernor Hochul remains committed to holding employees to the highest leadership and ethical standards, and ITS will continue to deliver technology solutions and services for New Yorkers, our agencies and partners,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The firing, first reported in the industry publication Government Technology<\/a>, came Monday as Hochul held a press conference to announce new regulations on AI models<\/a> set to take effect next year.<\/p>\n Rai\u2019s bio on the ITS website said the ousted director was responsible for the state\u2019s \u201congoing digital transformation\u201d and \u201cworking with Executive Branch agencies to create digital interactions between state government and residents that are simple, seamless and straightforward.\u201d<\/p>\n The bio has since been scrubbed.<\/p>\n Jenson Jacob has been named acting director of ITS, Hochul\u2019s spokesperson said.<\/p>\n Rai\u2019s predecessor, Rajiv Rao, was fired by Hochul<\/a> in 2023 and later settled with the state Commission on Ethics and Lobbying in Government by admitting he state violated rules by awarding a contract to a lobbyist friend\u2019s firm<\/a>. Rao admitted he procured a special state-issued cell phone for former budget director Sandra Beattie that bypassed mandatory security protocols.<\/p>\n Beattie also settled with the commission in July and admitted to violating ethics rules.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ALBANY \u2013 Gov. Kathy Hochul abruptly fired the Empire State\u2019s top tech official but the reason for the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":355100,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[4241,426,57,9,11,10,49,51,50,58],"class_list":["post-355099","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-albany","tag-kathy-hochul","tag-metro","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-new-york-state","tag-new-york-state-headlines","tag-new-york-state-news","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355099","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=355099"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355099\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/355100"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=355099"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=355099"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=355099"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"New](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/2026-starting-november-new-york-141956148.jpg\")
Gov. Kathy Hochul fired the state\u2019s top IT official Monday. Andrew Schwartz \/ SplashNews.com<\/p>\n