The NYS Forum is Proud to Welcome Karen Tyler, Executive Director of the Statewide Financial System, and Jenson Jacob, Acting Executive Deputy Chief Information Officer for the NYS Office of Information Technology Services to its Board of Directors

These appointments reflect the Forum’s continued commitment to strong public sector leadership and collaboration in advancing technology and innovation across New York State.

Karen Tyler, Executive Director of the Statewide Financial System, is responsible for the overall management New York State’s Enterprise Financial System, serving and supporting over 100,000 customers throughout New York State agencies and the vendor and Not-for-Profit communities.  Assuming the Executive Director role in 2017, Karen brought with her a solid understanding of New York State government operations and a focus on customer service and continuous improvement.  Karen first joined State government in 1993 as a State Accounts Auditor Trainee with the Office of the State Comptroller, and advanced to positions including the Director of Administration and Information Technology at the Division of the Budget, the Project Director for the effort to establish the Office of General Services (OGS) Business Services Center (BSC), the first Executive Director of the BSC,  and the Executive Deputy Commissioner at OGS.  Karen holds a Master’s of Business Administration Degree from Sage Graduate School and a Bachelor’s Degree in Accounting from Russell Sage College.

In June 2025, Jenson Jacob was named Acting Executive Deputy Chief Information Officer for the NYS Office of Information Technology Services (ITS).  Prior to that, he served as the agency’s Chief Digital Transformation Officer. Jenson brings more than 25 years of IT experience working on both private and public sector initiatives that include building a digital strategy using disruptive and enterprise technologies and overseeing an innovation journey across applications and services. Prior to joining ITS in 2011, Jenson worked for Unisys and HCL Technologies where he served as an enterprise solution and services architect building customer-centric products. Earlier in his career at ITS, he served as the Deputy Chief Technology Officer overseeing business application development for more than 57 executive agency clients as well as managing an 1,800+ strong workforce delivering mission critical services for New Yorkers. In his spare time, he serves as an Adjunct Professor at the State University of New York at Albany (SUNY), where he teaches data computing, networking and cloud computing to undergraduate students. Jenson holds a bachelor’s degree in computer science from the University of Mumbai in India.