Norman Jacknis

Dr. Norman J. Jacknis has decades of executive and leadership experience in the public and private sectors. He has successfully led organizations to adopt innovations, advance technologies, and embrace data-driven cultures. 

Currently, he is a full-time faculty member in the Technology Management program, teaching courses on the design and realization of technology products and services, as well as machine learning and artificial intelligence.  In addition, Dr. Jacknis is Senior Fellow at the Intelligent Community Forum Fellow, where he leads an international panel of experts who annually evaluate cities and regions in their use of technology for the quality of life of their residents.

Starting in 2008, Dr. Jacknis was Director of Cisco’s IBSG Public Sector Group, where he worked with governments and businesses around the world on open innovation and pro bono strategies.

Before joining Cisco, he served more than ten years as CIO and Commissioner of Westchester County, New York government, where he was responsible for all technology, analytics, internet, and broadband activities, as well as technology-based economic development. In addition to the County government, he provided these services to municipalities and other nonprofit community organizations. He also was Co-Chair of Technology and Enterprise Architecture in New York State Government’s CIO Council and a member of the Partnership For Intergovernmental Innovation.

Government Technology Magazine selected Dr. Jacknis as one of the nation’s “Top 25 Doers, Dreamers and Drivers who, using technology ... broke bureaucratic inertia to better serve the public.” Under his leadership, Westchester County won numerous awards, including the Center for Digital Government’s top ten digital counties in the country, American City & County’s Crown Communities Award for technology, and was selected as one of the top seven Intelligent Communities in the world.

Prior to his public service, Dr. Jacknis had diverse experience as an executive in the software industry, with emphasis on Internet applications and distributed computing. Earlier in his career, he taught applied statistics as a faculty member of Stony Brook University and was Senior Research Associate at the Vera Institute.

Among many activities beyond his work, Dr. Jacknis has been a mentor in the Executive Master of Science in Technology Management program at Columbia University. He is Vice Chair of the Westchester County Community College board of trustees and was President of the New York Metropolitan Library Council for ten years, among several leadership positions in the library community.