The announcement, shared yesterday via Kennedy Vickers’ LinkedIn page, was confirmed on the company’s website, which featured an interview between company founder Casey Helbling and Kennedy Vickers.
Kennedy Vickers shared that her decision to leave St. Paul was influenced by a few factors — one being the freedom and drive to create new technology.
“As much as I valued my work in St. Paul, I was yearning for the freedom to co-create liberating technology wherever people need it,” she said. “That’s exactly what Software for Good is built to do. Software for Good exists to leverage software to improve the human condition — in civic tech, in community safety, in human services, in climate action.”
As for her previous role, Kennedy Vickers led the city’s Office of Technology and Communication, overseeing all cybersecurity, infrastructure and operations, digital solutions, technology business management and digital communications.
“Having Sharon at the helm will have all kinds of dramatic benefits for our team — for the growth she’ll enable, for the diversity and excellence of the talent she’ll attract to our team, and for the culture of belonging and curiosity she creates wherever she goes,” Helbling said in the announcement.
As St. Paul CIO, Kennedy Vickers was also responsible for supporting 15 vital business units and departments within the city.
“I couldn’t imagine doing anything other than leading St. Paul’s tech team to support Mayor [Melvin] Carter’s vision. As CIO, I built a communications and technology team that looked like our community, and together we did amazing things with limited resources to make St. Paul work better for everyone,” Kennedy Vickers said of her city service.
