Pegues became Aurora’s first CIO in June 2017, after Irvin became mayor; Pegues is still in that position today. He says he was walking into an unknown situation, where measures of success would not be typical business KPIs but rather his impact on the community and his service to the public.
“My job is to guide the City of Aurora’s technical landscape, to make it a smarter and more connected city, a better-run city, more inclusive and more prosperous by thinking about how to use tech and innovation to drive all that,” Pegues says. “That was a huge shift for me.”
Leaning into his skills, Pegues moved the city’s IT department from a decentralized model to a centralized one, curtailed the use of shadow IT, launched various transformational initiatives, brought agility to his team’s processes, and coached Irvin on tech-enabled possibilities.
In addition to multiple modernization projects and cybersecurity improvements, Pegues’s technology plan has a No Child Left Offline initiative which aims to bridge the digital divide among students; support for the Aurora STEAM Academy, another student-focused program; and expansion of the city’s fiber optic network to spur more economic development.
He acknowledges feeling frustrated early on but looking into the future he has a different perspective on his shift into the public sector: “This is definitely my legacy.”
