Peter J. Quinn

Peter J. Quinn, an information technology (IT) worker, was chief information officer (CIO) of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts from September 2002 through January 2006. He is noted for his controversial support for OpenDocument, a standard format for office documents (ISO/IEC 26300).

Quinn on 17 March 2019

Quinn established a requirement that all state government documents be formatted in OpenDocument (effective 2007). This created intense opposition from Microsoft, whose Office software uses proprietary formats and does not recognize OpenDocument files. Quinn was supported by his boss Eric Kriss and others. But he was also opposed in his efforts; for example by Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth William F. Galvin. Furthermore, Stephen Kurkjian of the Boston Globe suggested that Quinn had a conflict of interest. He was a speaker at IT conferences that paid part of his trip expenses.[1] Quinn was cleared of wrongdoing, but he has resigned, stating the following:

Over the last several months, we have been through some very difficult and tumultuous times. Many of these events have been very disruptive and harmful to my personal well being, my family and many of my closest friends. This is a burden I will no longer carry....I have become a lightning rod with regard to any IT initiative. Even the smallest initiatives are being mitigated or stopped by some of the most unlikely and often uninformed parties. The last thing I can let happen is my presence be the major contributing factor in marginalizing the good work of ITD and the entire IT community.[2]

In an interview Quinn stated that "he hears Microsoft was the Boston Globe's source."[3]

After leaving the CIO role in Massachusetts, Quinn landed a position in 2011 with the State of Ohio.[4] Inspector General's investigation was initiated in February 2018. The investigation was completed and published in the Columbus Dispatch in December 2018, well after he had left Ohio. Mr Quinn was never notified about the investigation by the Inspector General's office even though he had the same physical address since 2007 and same mobile number since 2010. The Ohio's inspector general in December accused him of conspiring to rig $469,000 worth of price-inflated IT contracts with that state's Workers Compensation bureau. Only after the investigation was completed, the appeal process notification and appeal process ending was Mr. Quinn notified by the Inspector General's office in documents delivered to his home.The allegations in the Inspector General's report are completely false as the selection and interview process was done a 25 year BWC employee. Mr Quinn had no hiring or firing authority. Following his Ohio position, Quinn landed a job with New York City's Department of Education in 2016.[5] Quinn quit his job as NYC opened an investigation into his behavior. Mr Quinn resigned due to health reasons and was cleared of all allegations.

Quinn is a graduate of Cambridge College.