Mayor Michelle Wu announced Shin-pei Tsay as Chief Information Officer for the Department of Innovation and Technology (DoIT), a key senior role focused on strengthening City’s digital infrastructure and service delivery across neighborhoods. Santi Garces, who served as CIO for the past four years, has joined Harvard University to work on research and teaching related to the future of government, artificial intelligence, and innovation.
“Our team is driven by innovative leaders who bring creative solutions to improving City services and better serve our community,” said Mayor Michelle Wu. “Shin‑pei Tsay will lead the Department of Innovation and Technology’s work to strengthen the digital tools and infrastructure that residents rely on, building on the strong foundation laid by Santi Garces. I’m excited to welcome her to the role to continue advancing the technologies that help the City better serve residents. ”
“As we continue modernizing City services, these appointments ensure we have trusted, experienced leadership in place,” said Clare Kelly, City of Boston Chief of Staff. “Shin-pei will help us build on the City’s strong foundation and we look forward to her leadership of this critical cabinet that ensures our city workforce, residents, businesses, and families are connected to high quality services and resources.”
DoIT plays a critical role in enabling the effective delivery of public services, programs and products for residents, families, businesses, and visitors. Over the past years, DoIT has implemented a wave of advancements that are reshaping how people access services, data, and technology infrastructure to do everything they need to do. Building on City efforts to improve service delivery, DoIT has overhauled the City’s digital infrastructure and websites, including assessing information online, making it easier for residents to look up property information online and pay taxes. Additionally, DoIT recently adopted the first citywide generative artificial intelligence policy and released a second phase of Project Green Light in partnership with Google. DoIT has also improved Wicked Free Wi-Fi to deliver high quality internet for the public in schools, libraries, police stations, fire stations and other municipal buildings, serving over 130,000 residents.
“I’m deeply honored to continue serving the City of Boston and support the vision of Mayor Wu at this critical time when nearly everything is technology enabled,” said Shin-pei Tsay, Chief Information Officer. “Great technology infrastructure can immensely improve and scale public service so that it centers people. The everyday experiences people have from taking their kids to school, looking up property information, or reporting issues on the street is the work of local government, and I’m excited to continue building on all the resident-centered innovation Boston has done so that we can meet future challenges and expand access so that everyone can thrive.”
Shin-pei Tsay currently serves as the City’s Chief Research and Data Officer, where she launched the first city-wide data strategy, and formerly led the Mayor’s Office of Urban Mechanics. Tsay has devoted her career to making cities work better for people at the intersection of public space, transportation, climate, and civic technology. Her past leadership roles include head of global cities and sustainability policy at Uber where she drove the policy initiative behind the company’s global sustainability commitment; founding executive director at the Gehl Institute where she launched the Public Life Data Protocol with San Francisco, Seattle, and Copenhagen; deputy executive director of Transit Center where she established pillars of public transportation reform including transit board capacity building, emerging technologies, and bus network redesign; director of cities and transportation program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace where she researched demand-side policies that supported stronger connections between federal transportation and climate policy arenas; and deputy director at Transportation Alternatives where she was a leader in an all-sector movement to accelerate urban transportation innovations from safe pedestrian street designs and bike lane networks to Vision Zero. She was recognized as a Local IT Leader by State Scoop in 2025 and as a Sustainability Star by AdWeek in 2022.
Tsay holds a Master of Science in Cities, Space & Society from the London School of Economics, a B.A. with Distinction in Government from Cornell University and has served on the New York City Public Design Commission; multiple non-profit organizations, most recently as Vice Chair of SPUR, the Bay-area civic planning institution; and taught urban design at Parsons School of Design and Columbia Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation. She is currently a member of the Harvard Extension School’s Sustainability Master of Liberal Arts Advisory Board.
