Meet Our Leadership Team

Chief Information Officer (CIO) of the Commonwealth Mike Watson was appointed by Gov. Abigail D. Spanberger in April 2026. Mike is also the agency head for VITA.

Mike brings over 17 years at VITA and more than two decades of public sector technology leadership to the CIO role. He has earned a reputation for bridging technical depth with strategic execution, leading cybersecurity, enterprise architecture, product management, and technology teams that deliver secure and innovative solutions aligned to the missions of state government. As the Commonwealth's technology executive, he will lead enterprise IT strategy, cloud transformation, AI adoption, and digital modernization across the Commonwealth's IT portfolio.

Mike is a recognized leader in technology and cybersecurity, with a career built on ensuring that modernization efforts are grounded in sound judgment and deliver lasting value to the agencies and citizens they serve. He brings that perspective to every dimension of technology leadership, ensuring that innovation is built on a foundation of trust and resilience.

Mike is a committed partner to the broader Commonwealth IT community. He leads several councils related to technology and cybersecurity aimed at strengthening the resilience of government systems and fostering collaboration across agencies. He actively champions technology education through national conferences, and partnerships supporting local governments, schools, and local organizations. Mike is a graduate of James Madison University and the University of Pennsylvania, and is currently pursuing additional education at Virginia Commonwealth University.

Brahma Alaparthi is VITA’s Chief of Enterprise and Cloud Solutions, bringing over 20 years of technology leadership experience with a focus on enterprise solutions, IT strategy development and transformation initiatives. 

Prior to joining VITA, Brahma served as the Deputy Chief Information Officer for the Virginia Department of Transportation. In that role, he provided both strategic and tactical leadership to a team of 140 IT professionals supporting over 150 applications, managing more than 500 servers and 150 databases, maintaining a portfolio of approximately 50 active projects, and overseeing around 400 networking devices. 

Brahma holds a Master of Business Administration from Duke University, a master’s degree in computer applications from Osmania University, and a bachelor’s degree in computer science from Nagarjuna University. 

As VITA’s Chief Administrative Officer, Jason Brown oversees communications, facilities, Governor’s office IT support, human resources, internal IT and legal and legislative services. He has nearly three decades of experience leading multimillion-dollar programs and cross-functional teams across multiple agencies, including the Virginia Employment Commission, Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles, the Virginia Department of Health Professions, Richard Bland College of William and Mary, the City of Richmond and the United States Department of Defense. 

Jason is a graduate of the Virginia Executive Institute and earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Virginia Commonwealth University, a post-graduate degree in operations management from the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College, and a master’s degree in management from Webster University.

Naveen Abraham, Chief of Core Infrastructure Services, has three decades of experience in technology, product development, organizational management, infrastructure and leadership.  

Naveen leads the VITA infrastructure team in delivering essential services to the 65 executive branch state agencies of the Commonwealth of Virginia and supporting a workforce of 65,000 dedicated employees. His team also manages commonwealth executive branch infrastructure contracts and provides services for server and compute, security, mainframe, voice and data networks and end-user devices. Before joining VITA, Naveen served as the Deputy IT Division Officer at the Virginia Department of Transportation, where he worked for 13 years.  

Naveen is proficient in cultivating customer-centric teams that prioritize continuous learning, high performance, and innovation. He holds a bachelor’s in electrical and Electronics Engineering and a master’s in business administration.

VITA’s Chief Financial Officer, Cynthia Cordova-Edwards, oversees financial operations for the agency’s ~$500 million IT budget. With over 20 years of experience in finance and operations across the public and private sectors, she leads strategic financial planning, cost recovery, and financial reporting efforts that ensure fiscal integrity and transparency across Commonwealth IT services. Cynthia has driven major initiatives including Oracle EPM implementation, accounting transformation and improved budget forecasting.  

Cynthia is a graduate of the University of Richmond and the University of Virginia Darden School of Business.

Richard Matthews, who serves as VITA’s Customer Experience Officer, brings nearly 20 years of results-driven, private and public sector experience in program management, customer and stakeholder engagement, strategic change leadership, and project management. He has a track record of delivering complex, technical products and programs across national, international and global customer bases. 

Richard earned a bachelor’s degree in interdisciplinary studies from Virginia Commonwealth University, a bachelor’s degree in Russian studies from Moscow State University, and two master’s degrees in organizational development and business administration from Norwich University.

Marcus Thornton, VITA’s Deputy Chief Data Officer, has 20 years of software engineering experience. In this role, Marcus creates new partnerships between the Office of Data Governance and Analytics and Commonwealth agencies to demonstrate how sharing data across the Commonwealth can be leveraged to make more informed decisions and increase efficiencies. 

Marcus previously worked for a data company that specializes in the collection of retail pricing data across North America. He has degrees in marketing and computer science from East Tennessee State University.