A former Comcast VP becomes Pa.’s chief information officer

After spending the bulk of her career working in the private sector at both tech startups and corporate giants, Philadelphia-based Amaya Capellán is taking a step into state government.

In July, Capellán became the new chief information officer for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

Her job, within the state’s Office of Information Technology (OIT), is to ensure that statewide agencies have the technology they need to make their services accessible to 13 million Pennsylvanians, as well as ensure that the commonwealth’s 80,000 employees have the tools they need to do their jobs.

Capellán comes to state government after six years as a vice president or a director-level product manager at Center City-headquartered Comcast, as well as three years as vice president of product and client success at former Philly B2B company PeopleLinx.

With this new role, she says she wanted the opportunity to implement digital transformation within state government. The new Commonwealth Office of Digital Experience, or CODE PA, launched earlier this year with a goal to make it easier for constituents to access digital services — for instance, voting, registering a business, or fling a jobless claim.

“Amaya is a proven leader with an impressive track record of digital transformation throughout her career,” Neil Weaver, secretary of administration for Gov. Josh Shapiro, said in an announcement.

“Her breadth of experience delivering results in the private sector will help us advance the Shapiro Administration’s priorities for digital transformation and customer service,” Weaver said.

As CIO, Capellán will also closely with Pennsylvania’s chief data officer and chief information security officer. Data and security are important not only to ensure that people’s information stays safe, she said, but because well-managed data and security can create a more positive user experience.

Capellán considers herself a “people-first” leader and said there is already excitement in OIT as CODE PA and related projects get off the ground. She wants to make OIT one of the best places to build a technical skillset and make sure that the diversity of the team adequately represents the population of the state.

“I have been given this awesome opportunity to lead a large organization,” Capellán said. “It all starts with getting to understand the team that I have, what they’ve been asked to do, the challenges they have, maybe some of those ideas that they haven’t had the chance to see through that are kind of right there that I can help them deliver.”

At Comcast, Capellán said her top focus had been on customer needs. Building systems that make government services run smoothly — and tracking progress — matters because it builds trust between the government and residents, she said.

“What I’m looking to hear is that, generally speaking, when we ask our residents how we’re doing, and we ask our employees, ‘How easy is it to work with us?’ that, No. 1, we measure that information and everyone knows it, and that we see that it continues to get better,” she said.

A version of this article originally appeared on Technical.ly Philly, a news website dedicated to local tech communities.