Chris Mertens, Director of Technology for Hamilton County, has been elected President of the Metropolitan Information eXchange (MIX).
Mertens
Mertens has served as Hamilton County’s Director of Technology since November 2009. In addition, Mertens has served as the Vice President and President of the Indiana Government Technology Leaders Association and as a board member for the Association of Indiana Counties and an advisory member of Governor Holcomb’s Indiana Executive Council on Cyber Security.
MIX promotes progress in the information technology profession by providing Chief Information Officers of large local governments, with similar interests, the means for learning and exchanging ideas and practices.
MIX began in 1966 as an association of East Coast cities, whose IT leaders formed the organization. MIX has now evolved into its current form – a tightly-knit community of 65 CIOs and IT Directors for the most innovative cities and counties in the United States with populations of over 100,000.
“The MIX group holds an annual conference each year in the fall that is hosted in a member city,” Mertens said. “In 2020, the annual conference was supposed to be in San Diego, Calif., but was moved to virtual due to COVID-19. During that annual meeting, election of officers occurred and I was moved into the role of President.”
Mertens continued, “In 2021, the plan is to go back to San Diego for an in-person conference again where I will move to the role of Immediate Past President and a new President will take over. The other board members serving with me include the CIO for the City of San Francisco, the CIO of Virginia Beach, the CIO for the City of San Jose, and CIO for the city of Fayetteville, N.C.”