County interviews Karen Randolph for deputy director role in Department of Technology and Enterprise Business Solutions

The Montgomery County Council held an interview Feb. 25 with Karen Randolph, the county executive’s nominee to serve as deputy director/chief operating officer of the Department of Technology and Enterprise Business Solutions (TEBS). The position was created to provide enterprise leadership as the county replaces aging systems and expands IT responsibilities.

Randolph described experience in budgeting, procurement and operations across federal, city and state government. She said her last role as a budget officer in a large federal division and subsequent positions — including chief administrative officer for the City of Raleigh’s IT department and senior operations roles in Chicago and at North Carolina’s Department of Health and Human Services — focused on identifying savings, redirecting funds to innovation, and improving contractual terms.

Asked how she would organize funding and replacement of multiple county systems, Randolph said she would pursue a holistic approach: analyze the enterprise budget, pursue enterprise solutions that increase purchasing power, “right-size” internal staffing, plan for succession and reskilling of an aging technical workforce, and create predictive finance–engineering teams to manage cloud consumption and forecast multi-year costs. “Establishing a team of business financial individuals along with individuals who are technology engineers…doing predictive analysis” would inform budget requests, she said.

On racial equity and systemic bias in technology, Randolph said she would continue work already underway in TEBS, including outreach to affinity groups and programs expanding digital access to under-served communities. On the county’s federated IT environment, she acknowledged consolidation challenges and emphasized strategic, phased transitions that protect resident services and reskill staff.

Randolph described prior cybersecurity work at the state level, saying she helped increase cybersecurity funding and hired additional staff, and recommended the county similarly identify current gaps and fund necessary tools and personnel. Director Gail Roper, who introduced Randolph and spoke in support, described Randolph as a “financial guru” with enterprise IT budget experience and said she had served effectively as Roper’s COO in Raleigh.

Councilmembers thanked Randolph for her presentation; no confirmation vote occurred at the Feb. 25 session. The council’s government operations committee will continue its review under the county’s appointment process.