What Happened?
Newton, NC-based Catawba County has Promoted Michael R. Pilato as Chief Information Officer
About the Company
Catawba County, North Carolina, is located in the western part of the State in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains. It was established on December 12, 1842 and, on January 8, 1845, Newton was selected as the County seat. It was one of the first counties of the 100 counties in North Carolina to adopt the county manager form of government (March 1, 1937). The Board of Commissioners has five members elected on an at-large basis to staggered four year terms.
About the Person
Michael R. Pilato has been serving as Interim CIO since September 2014. As CIO, Pilato will serve as department director for Information Technology and Geographic Information Systems (GIS), supervising 27 employees. He will oversee development of new technologies and identify, plan and implement strategies to improve access to information and service efficiency for the citizens of Catawba County. Pilato will also manage several existing technology-related partnerships between the County and the municipalities within Catawba County. Pilato has lived in North Carolina for twenty-five years. He began working for Catawba County Social Services in 1998 as a Business Manager overseeing the fiscal aspects of the agency’s Children and Family Services section. He was responsible for overall financial management of a $15 million budget including budgeting, forecasting, analysis, modeling, and reporting for areas under management. Pilato rose steadily through the ranks at Catawba County Social Services, adding on responsibility for management of Social Services’ Information Technology function in 2001 and becoming Assistant Social Services Director in 2008. This included responsibility for the internal operations of accounting and finance, information technology, human resources, and facilities, as well as the programmatic areas of Aging and Economic Support services. In that capacity, Pilato directed all programming aspects of services such as Adult Protective Services, Guardianship, Senior Nutrition, Medicaid, Food Assistance and Work First. Additionally, he continued to lead the agency`s yearly budget process, ongoing rolling forecasts, strategic planning efforts, including creation of a Capital Improvement Plan, year-end closing/reconciliation, internal/external audits and business process re-engineering. Pilato earned a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration and a Master’s of Business Administration from Appalachian State University, with concentrations in Financial Management with both degrees. He has since completed additional training toward the Local Government Finance Officer designation, and obtained leadership and management training through the State of North Carolina and Human Services Legal Training from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s School of Government. He also completed advanced accounting courses at Lenoir-Rhyne University and is a certified Six Sigma / LEAN black belt. Pilato and his wife, Allison, live in Granite Falls with their two children, Nicholas and Caden. He has been very involved in the community, serving on the Corporate Board of the YMCA of Catawba Valley from 2011 to 2014, the Leadership Catawba program of the Catawba County Chamber of Commerce, including a year as Leadership Catawba Chair in 2010, and is currently a member of First Citizen`s Robert Carlisle Foundation Trust Board of Directors. He and his family are members at Calvary Advent Christian Church, where he currently serves as Treasurer.
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