Charles F. Gerhards President, Gerhards Consulting Group

Charles Gerhards is the founder and president of Gerhards Consulting Group, LLC. Launched in 2003, the company works with premier technology businesses across the United States, helping them achieve higher levels of performance and market dominance. Gerhards Consulting Group offers services including strategic consulting, thought leadership, identification of and capture of client procurement opportunities, as well as assisting public sector organizations meet their technology goals.

Before starting Gerhards Consulting Group, Mr. Gerhards served as the Governor’s Deputy Secretary for Information Technology and Chief Information Officer (CIO) for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. He was responsible for the establishment of statewide policies, standards, and guidelines governing the planning, management, acquisition, security, and use of information technology assets in all Commonwealth agencies under the Governor's jurisdiction, impacting 85,000 state employees. Mr. Gerhards was appointed to this post by Governor Tom Ridge in January 1999 and served under both governors Ridge and Schweiker. He retired from the Commonwealth in January 2003 after 33 years of public service.

As the state’s CIO, Mr. Gerhards oversaw the development and implementation of some of the most pioneering government technology projects in the nation. Included among those initiatives was the Data PowerHouse, the first successful state government data center consolidation and outsourcing project in the nation; the PA PowerPort, state government’s award-winning Internet portal and related e-government applications; Imagine PA, the most extensive public sector enterprise resource planning (ERP) project in the U.S.; JNET, Pennsylvania’s nationally recognized integrated justice network; Commonwealth Connect, which provides 65,000 state employees with a unified email system and standard desktop software for creating and sharing office files; the Keystone Communications Project, representing the largest transition to competitive telecommunication services in the nation; and the construction and deployment of the most advanced, voice-and-data, public safety radio network in North America.

Based on these accomplishments, the Commonwealth won many prestigious awards and captured the attention of the national media. Additionally, in 2002, Mr. Gerhards was recognized with the “Public Official of the Year” award, which is presented annually by Governing magazine. In March 2003, Mr. Gerhards was named by Government Technology magazine as one of the “Top 25 Doers, Dreamers and Drivers” in public service. The publication explained that this honor was reserved for leaders who managed “innovations (that) have helped advance the art of applying technology to government service, changing the landscape of public-sector IT.”

Mr. Gerhards is a graduate of The Pennsylvania State University and currently serves as an Advisory Board member for Penn State’s acclaimed College of Information Sciences and Technology (IST). He has been a featured speaker at numerous national conferences, has testified before Congress on various technology issues and is frequently quoted in national mainstream and technical publications.