businesschief.com 175CITY OF HAMILTON
Cyrus Tehrani is Chief Digital
Officer at the City of Hamilton,
a role which attracted him due to its
unusual specifications. “They were
filling a Chief Digital Officer role and
looking to do some creative things.
Many cities don’t have CDOs yet and
the opportunity to help shape the
direction of digital transformation was
what attracted me to the role. ” Despite
the ‘Digital’ in his job title, Tehrani’s
influence extends beyond that domain.
“It’s a bit of an odd portfolio in the
sense of a CDO per se, where my
focus isn’t solely on the digital service
channel deliveries that the city has.”
Instead, Tehrani oversees a
diverse portfolio based around digital
transformation as well as being a
champion to promote the digital
transformation occurring across the
wide range of services the city
provides. “That involves looking at
processes both internally and
externally. For instance, our
digital communication
team is in
the midst of a project
to completely refresh
our website, ensuring
it’s multilingual and
in-line with new web
standards for those
with disabilities.EXECUTIVE BIO
CYRUS TEHRANI
TITLE: CHIEF DIGITAL OFFICER
INDUSTRY: GOVERNMENT
LOCATION: ONTARIO, CANADAEnhancements to city digital services
delivery is prioritized based on value
to citizens as Tehrani explains. “We’ve
launched an online engagement platform,
where people can pin places on a map, if
they're talking about a park for instance,
and tell us what features they do or don't
like. From that, we can engage them
with surveys and provide them with a
timeline and visibility of who's listening to
their concerns.” Another important issue
for a city of Hamilton’s size and mix of
urban, suburban and rural environments
is internet access, especially in the age
of COVID-19, and it has subsequently
embarked on a broadband survey to