Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Technology Procurement Cybersecurity topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Senate committee advises consent for Mark Henderson to ITS authority; nominee emphasizes retaining tech jobs and cybersecurity
Summary
The Mississippi Senate Technology Committee advised consent for Mark Henderson’s nomination to the Information Technology Services (ITS) Authority for a five-year term. Henderson highlighted retaining in-state technology talent, expanding shared services, and strengthening cybersecurity as priorities.
Mark Henderson, nominated to the Mississippi Information Technology Services (ITS) Authority, won the committee’s advised consent Wednesday for a five-year term beginning Jan. 20, 2025, and ending June 30, 2029.
Henderson told the committee he is “deeply appreciative of the opportunity to do this, remotely” and described his background in technology and small business, including co-founding the first packaging brewery in the state. He said his previous service on the ITS board has shown him “a lot of room for improvement” in procurement, in-state hiring, and shared technology services.
Henderson and committee members discussed the challenge of retaining technical talent in Mississippi. Henderson said agencies frequently must contract with out-of-state firms because salary levels and position structures do not allow hiring locally. “A department will come to the board and say, hey. Look. We’re gonna have to spend, you know, a million dollars to pay people that live in Nashville, Tennessee to come do this job because we don't have the positions to actually offer those people here in the state of Mississippi,” he said.
On procurement and enterprise services, Henderson urged expanding ITS’s shared-services or “hub-and-spoke” model so the agency can provide centralized back-end support and reduce duplication. He also raised cybersecurity as an area for centralized investment: if every agency runs its own program, he said, “you're expecting every, you know, department head to have experts in that field,” which is difficult in a fast-changing technical environment.
Committee members noted Henderson had submitted his statement of economic interest and the required bond to the secretary of state's office before the hearing. After questions, a committee member moved for advised consent; the committee approved the motion by voice vote.
The committee did not record a roll-call tally in the transcript. The committee chair thanked Henderson and said he would hear from the legislature “shortly.”
