City promotes chief information officer to controller

The city’s chief information officer has been chosen to serve as the city-county controller beginning in 2020, Mayor Joe Hogsett announced Monday.

Ken Clark, who joined the city’s Information Services Agency as chief financial officer in 2013, will replace controller Fady Qaddoura, who is stepping down from the position at the end of the year.

As CFO of the Information Services Agency, Clark led the agency through a redesign of both its expense and revenue models and was promoted to chief operating officer of the agency, taking over responsibility for IT operations. As COO, Clark oversaw projects including the decommissioning of the city’s mainframe and the kickoff of a complete network infrastructure replacement including routers, switches, circuits, and cabling at over 150 locations across the county.

He was promoted to CIO in 2016, a position in which he manages a portfolio of IT infrastructure, applications, processes and projects that support the strategic and tactical needs of more than 45 city and county agencies and departments.

“Ken has proven himself to be dedicated public servant, prioritizing investments in digital city infrastructure through thoughtful, tax-payer friendly strategies,” Hogsett said in a written statement. “As controller, Ken will utilize the same coalition-driven approach to build upon our city’s fiscal success while bolstering programs that are keeping our community safer and our neighborhoods stronger.”

Prior to joining the city, Clark was a senior government consultant at Crowe Horwath, providing advisory consulting services to state and local governments around the country. He received a master’s in public administration from Indiana University, focusing on local government management and public financial administration.

Qaddoura, 39, has served as controller for the last four years. He plans to run for the District 30 Indiana Senate seat to represent Marion County and Hamilton County residents.