Cook County Chief Information Officer Named County Executive of the Year

COOK COUNTY, IL – Cook County Chief Information Officer Tom Lynch today was named GoldenGov: County Executive of the Year as part of StateScoop Magazine's LocalSmart Awards. Nominees were sourced from community submissions, and winners were chosen through online voting.

The LocalSmart Awards "honor the visionaries who transform local government to make a difference in citizens’ lives” and “make a lasting impact in the government IT community,” according to StateScoop.

“Tom has led Cook County through some key modernization projects that helped us operate much more efficiently,” Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle said. “I am grateful for his leadership and service to the County.”

Lynch has served as the Chief Information Officer for Cook County since 2018. Before being named Deputy Chief Information Officer and then Chief Information Officer, Lynch led Cook County's groundbreaking Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) project.

The new ERP system retired eight outmoded systems and saves the County millions of dollars annually through centralizing supply chain data (such as information about materials and vendors) to reduce inventory expenses and increase automation.

This project touched on many Cook County internal areas including: General Ledger, Purchasing, IProcurement, Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable, Grants Accounting, Projects Accounting, Budget Preparation & Control, Human Resources, Payroll, Benefits Management, Inventory Management and Organization-wide Reporting and Analytics.

Before coming to Cook County, Lynch served as Principal at SDI, a systems integrator focused on public sector clients. He also spent 25 years in IT leadership roles for the State of Illinois, Chicago Park District, and Chicago Public Schools. Over his career, Lynch led the acquisition and successful implementation of three ERP systems and two Time & Attendance systems.

“At the Bureau of Technology, we are empowering individuals with the ability to access data; we are moving from paper to digital and from mainframe to Software as a Service,” said Lynch.

The Cook County Assessor's Office's "SmartFile for Appeals" project also won as part of the Local IT Innovation of the Year category of the LocalSmart Awards. Since SmartFile went live this spring, property owners have been able to file appeals with the Assessor's Office online through a dynamic, modern platform. Although the Assessor previously had an online residential property appeals platform, SmartFile allowed them to electronically accept appeals and their supporting documents for all property types in Cook County.

Learn more about the Bureau of Technology at cookcountyil.gov/technology