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CLEVELAND, Ohio – Randy Cole, a former senior administration official from Kasich, is leaving his state work to work for a technology company in Cleveland that is developing ways to use blockchain to archive and record government records.
On Monday, Cole will become executive vice president and head of solutions for Ownum, a startup presided over by Cleveland car dealership Bernie Moreno, according to company officials. Moreno is a politically active GOP donor and has recently become a vocal call to blockchain, the online ledger technology.
Cole will leave his position as executive director of the Ohio Turnpike Commission, which the outgoing Governor Kasich has nominated him to lead in December 2014. His new job will be to help government officials use the products of the company.
The company has almost completed the development of a blockchain-based solution for car registration, according to Moreno. Cole said his work will involve developing a strategy to work with county officials and state motor vehicles to implement the technology.
"The more I studied and read books and case studies from around the world, the more excited I am," Cole said.
Moreno said that Ownum intends to launch its services for sale to the governments of Ohio, Florida and four other states. Cole is the twelfth employee of the company, he said. In the future, he would like to try to develop platforms to record license plates, birth and death records, among other possibilities.
The new government Mike DeWine announced this week that its lieutenant governor, Jon Husted, will oversee a new state agency called InnovateOhio, which officials say will focus on the use of technology to optimize government services. Husted is close to Moreno – Husted spoke at a Cleveland blockchain conference in December that Moreno helped organize – and expressed interest in incorporating the blockchain into the government. Moreno, meanwhile, supported Husted's political career and gave him in the past.
Cole joined the Kasich administration when Kasich was elected in 2011. He worked as a political advisor and oversaw Kasich's efforts to persuade local governments to consolidate services. He also served as a consultant for DriveOhio, an initiative that Kasich started last year to promote Ohio as a place to search for autonomous vehicles.
