Technology leadership for systems that have to work in the real world.

Chief Information Officer for the Commonwealth of Virginia. Work across public-sector technology, cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, governance, and applied research.

View selected work

About Me

The work sits at the intersection of public service, security, and emerging technology.

Making Complex Systems Understandable and Useful

Technology is useful when it helps people make better decisions, deliver services, and protect what they are trusted to manage.

That requires clear priorities, practical execution, visible evidence, and systems that remain accountable to people.

Virginia State Capitol — photo by APK, CC BY 4.0; cropped for display.

More about me

Current interests include AI capability and uncertainty, autonomous cyber threats, trustworthy communication, and agent systems with meaningful controls.

The writing translates those questions into practical decisions for leaders and builders.

Virginia State Capitol in Richmond, photographed from above

Areas of Focus

Public technology leadership, AI capability and uncertainty, and cybersecurity and trust.

Public Technology Leadership

Building technology services that are secure, reliable, customer-focused, and aligned with the missions they support.

AI Capability and Uncertainty

Measuring what AI systems can do, where they fail, and whether their confidence matches their behavior.

Cybersecurity and Trust

Understanding behavior across systems, protecting organizational trust, and designing communication that can be verified.

How I Think About Technology

Define the problem. Make the evidence visible. Test the system. Design the human handoff. Measure whether the result works in practice.

Work Experience

A career across technology strategy, cybersecurity, risk management, and enterprise systems.

Chief Information Officer

April 2026–present

Leading technology strategy and services for the Commonwealth through the Virginia Information Technologies Agency.

CISO and Deputy CIO

2011–2026

Led security strategy, technology investments, cloud architecture, threat detection, risk reporting, and organizational growth.

IT Risk Management

Commonwealth of Virginia

Created and managed a statewide program covering security controls, continuity planning, security architecture, incident response, and agency support.

Security Incident Management

Commonwealth of Virginia

Created and managed the Commonwealth security incident management program, with vulnerability assessment, threat analysis, and security advisory capabilities.

Systems and Infrastructure

Earlier technology work

Enterprise systems, network administration, identity, public key infrastructure, storage, virtualization, security assessments, and operational efficiency.

Selected Work

Research and software projects exploring AI capability boundaries, governable agents, representation reliability, and legislative decision support.

Explore the projects · Watch interviews and explore media coverage

AI and applied technology. Photo by Alexandre Debiève on Unsplash.

Research and evidence. Photo by Priscilla Du Preez on Unsplash.

Human judgment and direction. Photo by Daniil Silantev on Unsplash.

Mike Watson presenting at COVITS 2026. Photo: Virginia IT Agency.

Selected Writing

Essays on technology, trust, and human judgment. Read the original articles on LinkedIn.

Teaching is a feedback loop toward mastery. AI learning systems should test explanation and application, not simply track completion.

The AI Ate My Homework and Then Asked Me to Explain It

Autonomous attacks reveal themselves through relationships and behavior across systems, not isolated alerts.

When Attacks Become Autonomous, Defenses Must Become Insightful

When AI can imitate an organization’s voice, trust requires visible endorsement, evidence, accuracy, and authoritative anchors.

The Truth Is Out There… and We Can Prove It