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Kevin Gilbertson

Governor Gianforte Appoints Chief Information Officer

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 24, 2021

Contact: Brooke Stroyke, Office of the Governor


HELENA, Mont. – Governor Greg Gianforte and Department of Administration Director Misty Ann Giles today announced the appointment of Kevin Gilbertson to serve as Chief Information Officer (CIO) for the State of Montana.

“Improving customer service and modernizing technology in state government is critical to better serving the people of Montana,” Governor Greg Gianforte said. “Kevin is highly-qualified to lead the state’s digital redesign effort and help us implement the Montana comeback.”

Director of the Department of Administration Giles added, “Kevin’s previous work included managing large contact transformations. He recognizes the importance of making improvements to the way Montana does business and digitally interacts with citizens.”

A member of Governor Gianforte’s cabinet, Gilbertson begins his appointment as CIO today.

With a career in IT spanning decades, Gilbertson most recently served as a Vice President of Product Strategy and Enablement at Helix Business Solution in Bozeman.

“I look forward to assisting state agencies as they implement customer service best practices to better serve Montanans. Over the last twenty years, I’ve been doing similar work with state and federal government customers, including all branches of the military, as well as Fortune 500 corporate customers,” Chief Information Officer Gilbertson said. “I am thankful to Governor Gianforte and Director Giles for this opportunity and eager to get to work for Montanans.”

Prior to joining Helix Business Solution, Gilbertson was the owner and principal consultant at Forstara in Bozeman and worked in various IT roles at RightNow Technologies in Bozeman. While working for Socrata in Seattle, he partnered with federal agency CIO’s on open data initiatives.

Gilbertson holds a Master of Science degree from Capella University in psychology focusing on organizational leader development and is currently pursuing his Ph.D. in industrial and organizational psychology.

Kevin Gilbertson's Background

Kevin Gilbertson was appointed as the State CIO in March 2021. Gilbertson brings almost 30 years of high-tech and business consulting experience to the position. He has focused on helping organizations transform their customer experience (CX) for the past 20 years. 

Gilbertson had also worked for a number of SaaS vendor and/or consulting organizations providing CX software and expertise to both public and private sector clients as well as consulting with SaaS companies to transform internal teams and business functions prior to joining SITSD. His most recent roles included VP of Product & Engineering at Helix Business Solutions, and Founder and Principal Consultant at Forstara, LLC. 

He has a Master’s Degree in Psychology specializing in Organizational Leader Development from Capella University.