Chris Cruz is the SLED Vertical CIO for Public Sector at Tanium with more than 30 years of IT and business experience in the government sector spearheading innovative organizational and cybersecurity change across complex IT environments. In his role, Cruz works directly with the sales and technical teams to drive value for customers to achieve their strategic missions.

Prior to joining Tanium, Cruz held several key technology leadership roles across the State of California.

Most recently, Cruz was the Director and Chief Information Officer (CIO) for the San Joaquin County Information Systems Division, He also served as the Deputy CIO and Chief Deputy Director for the California Department of Technology where he provided co-executive leadership for close to 1,000 staff, managing executive level governance and oversight for the State’s 134 CIOs within the Executive Branch.

As the CIO for the California Department of Health Care Services (DHCS), Cruz provided strategic, cybersecurity and tactical direction with a $150 million IT infrastructure budget and an IT Project Portfolio of over $1.3 billion. Prior to his role at DHCS, Cruz was the CIO for the California Department of Food and Agriculture where he developed an Enterprise Architecture Plan that led to more efficient policies, processes, and procedures for IT projects.

Cruz’ progressive and dynamic leadership has earned several industry recognitions, including 2024 StateScoop Top 50 Industry Award, Forbes Top CIO Next List for 2023, StateScoop’s 2020 County Executive of the Year and 2016 Top Government IT Leader awards, NASCIO’s 2018 State Technology Innovator of the Year award, and Government Technology’s 2015 Top 25 Government Doers, Dreamers and Drivers award, among other honors.

Cruz earned his Bachelor of Science in Business Management from California State University at Sacramento and holds a certification in Leadership Excellence from the UC Davis Master’s Program.