businesschief.com 247CITY OF MEMPHIS
Kimberly Bailey is Director of Information
Technology and the Chief Information
Officer for the City of Memphis. She is the
first African American female to hold the
position. Bailey is an experienced leader with
demonstrated skills in project management,
team building, public speaking, and team
facilitation. She enjoys finding new and
innovative ways to address complex issues and
obtain excellent outcomes.
The native Memphian began her career
with the City of Memphis as a college
intern in the Information Systems Division.
Since then, this ambitious woman has
steadily progressed securing IT and project
management positions with international
and award-winning organizations such as the
Memphis Grizzlies, Technicolor, AutoZone,
Pinnacle Agriculture Holdings, and CBRE. She
returned to the City of Memphis in 2017 as the
EXECUTIVE BIOKIMBERLY BAILEY
TITLE: CIO
INDUSTRY: GOVERNMENT
LOCATION: MEMPHISsuggest to make it better. I know them and
they know me. We have a portal where you
can chat with the CIO any time. I schedule
these meetings myself so they don't have to go
through my EA” And since the lockdown she
has continued to add members to her team –
nobody lost their job, indeed there have been
advantages as she is now able to onboard
people who live in other cities.
Leading in an emergency
By March 2020 the IT Division found itself
having to respond to unprecedented
circumstances. “We immediately decided to
HRIS Solutions Manager and was instrumental
in the upgrade of several vital operational
components within the Human Resources
Department.
Bailey received her BS in Management
Information Systems from Christian Brothers
University and MS in Computer and Information
Sciences and Support Services from Bellevue
University. She shares her knowledge and
passion for technology
with the IT professionals of tomorrow
as an adjunct professor at
Christian Brothers University.
In addition to technology,
she serves as assistant
secretary of the Shelby
County Health, Education,
and Housing Board. Bailey
expresses her love of history
as the publisher of the
children’s coloring book series
Color & Read which highlights
the accomplishments
of African Americans. It can
be found online at
http://www.colorandread.com.send home our non-customer-facing people,
like programmers and developers and project
managers. They could work from home easily
and we needed more space for the people
who did have to come into the office so
they needn't work in proximity.” These guys
probably had the right hardware, but not all the
city's employees had. What to do, when 500
laptops and docking stations had to be sourced
in short order? Very fortuitously Bailey and
her deputy had recently paid a visit to a local
IT recycling contractor, ER2. “I have to admit
that I was not enthusiastic about going there
initially, but the place was only five minutes