Jason Gray
As CIO of the Department of Education, Jason Gray likens himself to an orchestra conductor. “The strength in good leadership is not just about being able to drive outcomes,” Gray said. “It’s about being able to leverage each individual and their unique knowledge, skills, abilities and experiences to collectively drive and deliver outcomes.” To do so requires a deep understanding of the many moving parts of an IT enterprise, much like a conductor must be aware of the many instruments and their parts in a piece of music. “While each player of an instrument delivers beautiful sounds, a good leader, like a director, will take those beautiful sounds and weave them together with melody augmented by rhythm to create music in a harmonic way that is something more beautiful than the individual. It brings it all together.”
