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Speaker 1: You're talking about huge data chunks that would take forever

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Speaker 1: to download. We're able to take that data, We're able

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Speaker 1: to use it quicker, We're able to display it in

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Speaker 1: near real time, if not real time. And again, the

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Speaker 1: connectivity between not just grabbing that data, but the connectivity

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Speaker 1: being devices and I T you always want things to

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Speaker 1: be faster than five G, provides that it's very exciting.

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Speaker 1: Welcome to the restless Ones. I'm Jonathan Strickland. I've spent

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Speaker 1: more than a decade really learning about technology, what makes

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Speaker 1: it tick, and then describing and explaining that to my audience.

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Speaker 1: But it's the conversations with the world's most unconventional thinkers,

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Speaker 1: the leaders at the intersection of technology and business, that

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Speaker 1: fascinate me the most. In partnership with T Mobile for Business,

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Speaker 1: I explore the unique set of challenges that see I

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Speaker 1: O S and C T O space, from advancements in

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Speaker 1: cloud and edge computing, software as a service, Internet of things,

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Speaker 1: and of course five G. We are often left wondering

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Speaker 1: how the leading minds and business continue to thrive. Let's

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Speaker 1: find out. Our guest today is Ron Moscowitz, the Deputy

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Speaker 1: executive Officer and ce IO of South Coast air Quality

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Speaker 1: Management District South Coast a q m D is a

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Speaker 1: government agency in California in charge of monitoring and reporting

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Speaker 1: on air pollution in Orange County and the majority of

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Speaker 1: Los Angeles, Riverside, and San Bernardino Counties. Ron's duties include

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Speaker 1: supporting the technology needs for the entire organization and implementing

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Speaker 1: solutions to provide improved service to stakeholders and citizens. Ron

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Speaker 1: has an extensive history in the public sector, and as

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Speaker 1: I found out, he and I have a lot of

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Speaker 1: common experiences that fostered a love of technology in general

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Speaker 1: and more specifically in using tech to solve big problems. Ron,

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Speaker 1: thank you so much for joining us, and before were

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Speaker 1: we really dive into your approach to leadership. We'd like

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Speaker 1: to get to know a little bit more about you.

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Speaker 1: And one thing I'm always fascinated to learn about from

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Speaker 1: my guess is how did you first get involved in technology?

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Speaker 1: Thanks for having me. It goes back all the way

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Speaker 1: to around and I was in sixth grade. There was

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Speaker 1: a doctor and he donated an Apple two plus two

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Speaker 1: my classroom, and I saw there was a power button

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Speaker 1: on the back of it, and I flipped it and

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Speaker 1: then I flipped the power button on the monitor, and

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Speaker 1: all of a sudden something came up. There was a

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Speaker 1: disc inside already, so it said adventure Land game and

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Speaker 1: it said what direction do you want to go? I

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Speaker 1: typed in go East, and it went on to the

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Speaker 1: next part of the game, and I was like, Wow,

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Speaker 1: this is really cool. This computer was talking to me,

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Speaker 1: and I just I thought it was magic. I was

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Speaker 1: just drawn in ever since, and so you're later, I

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Speaker 1: was able to buy an Apple twee. My two best

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Speaker 1: buddies and I just sat and hacked away for hours

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Speaker 1: at the machine, and we ran a number of bulletin

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Speaker 1: board systems and which is the precursor to the Internet.

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Speaker 1: And I won't get into the confessions of a teenage hacker,

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Speaker 1: but that's pretty much how I got into tech. You're

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Speaker 1: speaking to my very soul on My background is very

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Speaker 1: much like yours. I too had an Apple twee. I

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Speaker 1: do was a well. I was a frequent attendee of

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Speaker 1: bulletin board systems. I did not run my own, but

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Speaker 1: that is really exciting for me to hear someone who

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Speaker 1: has that same sort of background. How did that transition

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Speaker 1: to you deciding to make that a formal focus of

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Speaker 1: study and further on your career path. Well, everything happened

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Speaker 1: so organically. Back then, we didn't have really a lot

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Speaker 1: of manuals or classes to study. And I was around eighteen.

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Speaker 1: My mom's friend came over to our house. He was realtor,

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Speaker 1: and he said, he's having problems with his computer. And

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Speaker 1: he said, Ron, I heard you know a thing or

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Speaker 1: two about computer. Is gonna come and help me. I said, sure,

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Speaker 1: So I go over to his office. I sit down

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Speaker 1: and it's a it's actually it's an IBM PS two,

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Speaker 1: which I've never worked on an IBM before. I was

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Speaker 1: a complete Apple guy at that point. But I figured,

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Speaker 1: let me see what the Manuel says about it. What's

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Speaker 1: the problem, And so I asked him a few questions

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Speaker 1: and uh, and I sat down for about forty five

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Speaker 1: minutes and then I fixed the problem. And from then

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Speaker 1: on it just catapolted my career. I started doing some

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Speaker 1: odd jobs and opened up a little consulting business and

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Speaker 1: helped out doctor's offices and some manufacturers, mom and pop businesses,

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Speaker 1: and so that's how my career started. Fascinating. Well, what

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Speaker 1: brought you to South Coast Air Quality Management District? Well,

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Speaker 1: he was a lot of working in government and figuring

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Speaker 1: out where I wanted to be. I'm very fortunate that

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Speaker 1: I landed this job. When this job opened up, it

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Speaker 1: was it was really a dream to work for an

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Speaker 1: organization that is helping improve the quality of life of

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Speaker 1: my community and the community around us. The job is

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Speaker 1: right at my alley. As far as being a c

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Speaker 1: I oh, they needed somebody to come in to essentially,

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Speaker 1: you know, help reshape the I T team, and uh

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Speaker 1: I had that experience from my previous work in the government. Wow,

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Speaker 1: not only are you playing an important role in improving

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Speaker 1: the lives of those in the community, you are also

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Speaker 1: directly benefiting from that work as a resident and to

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Speaker 1: come in with an opportunity to make a real impact

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Speaker 1: as well. Can you talk a little more about that

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Speaker 1: process of overseeing a transition of the I T Department?

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Speaker 1: What did that actually involve? When I came in, the

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Speaker 1: guy before me was retiring. He didn't really know how

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Speaker 1: to run an I T shop the way that at

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Speaker 1: all best practices dictate. And I have had the experience

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Speaker 1: of running a number of government I T shops, So

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Speaker 1: the staff, they didn't have the trust of the organization

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Speaker 1: to deliver. It's not that they couldn't deliver it, just

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Speaker 1: they didn't have process standardization. They weren't given as much

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Speaker 1: opportunity to really develop their professional skills, and and communication

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Speaker 1: was was horrible. So I came in, I sat down

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Speaker 1: and talked to everybody, let them know. You know, number one,

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Speaker 1: I have an open do our policy, and I had

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Speaker 1: a lot of people walk in and tell me everything

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Speaker 1: from these people don't want to work with us too.

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Speaker 1: I don't know how to support this technology because I've

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Speaker 1: never been trained on it, but what we're required to

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Speaker 1: support it. So I took all of that and I

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Speaker 1: implemented a number of processes within our Information Management team,

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Speaker 1: which is our I T team, and that is number one.

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Speaker 1: I made sure that everybody had the training that they

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Speaker 1: need to have so they feel confident and comfortable in

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Speaker 1: doing what they do. And I sent everybody off to

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Speaker 1: process standardization training that we're all speaking the same language,

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Speaker 1: so the application development team can talk to the network

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Speaker 1: team because everyone has to work together. But everybody has

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Speaker 1: been trained and skilled in their own area, and so

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Speaker 1: they don't appreciate or know really how to work sometimes

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Speaker 1: with the other parts of it. And then I also

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Speaker 1: introduced project management to the organization, so that all of

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Speaker 1: our projects they are thought of ahead of time. They

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Speaker 1: they have a budget, they have approval from the stakeholders,

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Speaker 1: everyone knows what's to be delivered. It changed everything. It

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Speaker 1: allowed us to be more successful. And with that success,

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Speaker 1: the executive management, the division heads just started to realize

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Speaker 1: this is a good team. We need to use them more.

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Speaker 1: Because before I came, people like I said they had

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Speaker 1: an I T solution, they didn't sometimes come to it.

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Speaker 1: They would try to do it themselves and whatnot. And

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Speaker 1: our executive officer and I had a conver station. I said, listen,

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Speaker 1: I need anything that's I T. I needed to run

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Speaker 1: through my shop. If we can support it, we need

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Speaker 1: to support it. So my executive officer was just fantastic.

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Speaker 1: He supported me a percent. You're absolutely right, and so

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Speaker 1: now everything comes through me. And because of the success

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Speaker 1: that we've been able to deliver, we're really a trusted

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Speaker 1: partner with the organization. Ron You've really covered a lot

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Speaker 1: of ground there and hit on some incredibly important things.

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Speaker 1: The establishment of trust, the establishing of communication lines, the

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Speaker 1: breaking down of silos of different departments where everyone is

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Speaker 1: hyper focused within, and they don't really have an awareness

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Speaker 1: of what's going on outside. All of these I think

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Speaker 1: are absolutely key to running an effective department. Out of curiosity,

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Speaker 1: how how large is your department? And what would you

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Speaker 1: say to someone asking, though, what does your department do

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Speaker 1: within the overall context of South Coast Air Quality Management District?

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Speaker 1: Can you tell us a little more about that? Sure?

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Speaker 1: So I have fifty seven staff members, some contractors that

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Speaker 1: do some application support to enhance the team, but essentially

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Speaker 1: we do application development, which is that we write apps

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Speaker 1: for the organization. Now we do a very specific type

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Speaker 1: of business in monitoring and pollution control, so a lot

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Speaker 1: of our stuff you're not gonna be able to find

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Speaker 1: off the shelf. That's why we developed them. Also have

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Speaker 1: an operations team that handles the data center that our servers,

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Speaker 1: our network, our help desk, database support, and document management.

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Speaker 1: I created a project management office. In turn, I've also

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Speaker 1: created an I T Steering committee, so there's a lot

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Speaker 1: of transparency there. Also do public records. I've worked for

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Speaker 1: a lot of governments and and I've done public records before.

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Speaker 1: We're the public, you know, asked for information on this

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Speaker 1: meeting or X Y, and z and I've never had

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Speaker 1: so many public records were quest of my career. We

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Speaker 1: last year we did over public records requests, which is incredible,

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Speaker 1: and then cybersecurity, which we didn't have before I came

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Speaker 1: on board. But cybersecurity is a big deal, especially today.

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Speaker 1: So I hired in a very competent individual and we're

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Speaker 1: doing a lot to make sure that our data is

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Speaker 1: protected and the organization has the information they need. If

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Speaker 1: there's one thing most businesses can agree on these days,

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Speaker 1: it's that change has never come about so quickly. New

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Speaker 1: ways of working have become the norm. As a result,

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Speaker 1: the status quo no longer cuts it when it comes

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Speaker 1: to helping businesses adapt and innovate. That's why T Mobile

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Speaker 1: for Business uses unconventional thinking to help businesses work smarter

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Speaker 1: and grow faster. Only T Mobile offers America's largest and

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Speaker 1: fastest five G network. It's just one reason they're better

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Speaker 1: able to help businesses solve the real world challenges they

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Speaker 1: face as they evolve. For instance, their new w f

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Speaker 1: X solutions help team members stay connected and productive where

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Speaker 1: work happens. With nearly two and a half times the

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Speaker 1: network coverage of a T and T nearly four times

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Speaker 1: more than Verizon and forty billion dollars invested in network

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Speaker 1: and business improvements over the next three years. T Mobile

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Speaker 1: for Business is better for your business right now and

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Speaker 1: into the future. See what they can do for your

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Speaker 1: organization at T mobile dot com. Slash Unconventional Open Signal awarded.

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Speaker 1: T Mobile Fastest five G network based on average speeds.

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Speaker 1: USA five G User Experience Report, January. Capable device required

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Speaker 1: coverage on available in some areas. Some users may require

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Speaker 1: certain planner features ceet mobile dot com. I think it's

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Speaker 1: a good time now we'll transition over to really drilling

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Speaker 1: down into your leadership philosophies and strategies. And you've already

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Speaker 1: alluded to it about your previous experience in other leadership roles,

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Speaker 1: including public offices. How have you leveraged your previous experience

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Speaker 1: in the public sector to develop your current approach toward leadership.

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Speaker 1: It really wasn't planned that I was worked for so

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Speaker 1: many counties and for the public sector, but I just

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Speaker 1: kind of kind of happened. But I've certainly learned from

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Speaker 1: each one of them. I started off at Orange Country

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Speaker 1: health Care Agency, and that's where I really cut my

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Speaker 1: teeth on my technical skills, and I learned how to

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Speaker 1: navigate procurement and other government processes. And then I worked

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Speaker 1: for the county Executive Office, where again I learned to

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Speaker 1: navigate the political environment because I had to deal with

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Speaker 1: the board of supervisors and department heads. That's really where

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Speaker 1: I learned foster processed enterganization and form of project management.

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Speaker 1: The district Attorney's office, I learned to understand the business

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Speaker 1: more intimately. I had to talk to a lot of attorneys,

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Speaker 1: so I had to speak their language. That's important as

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Speaker 1: far as leadership because that again it gains the trust

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Speaker 1: and that opens that communication channel. And then my current

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Speaker 1: job at South Coast has just been amazing. I'm able

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Speaker 1: to not provide technical guidance and deliver almost every project

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Speaker 1: and service successfully, which is really solidify the trust between

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Speaker 1: my team and the rest of the district. And I'm

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Speaker 1: I'm very lucky also to have the support of our

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Speaker 1: executive officer and the governing board and the rest of

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Speaker 1: the executive team. And my leadership style really comes down

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Speaker 1: to providing or trying to achieve excellent customer service. My

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Speaker 1: team needs to feel comfortable and confident in what they

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Speaker 1: do and to know that I'm there for them, so

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Speaker 1: I invest in their professional development. I give them opportunities

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Speaker 1: to explore their technical skills, and so I basically do

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Speaker 1: my best to build them up so they can shine.

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Speaker 1: That that leads me to ask, have there ever been

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Speaker 1: any sort of defining moments in your career that really

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Speaker 1: helped shape this approach to leadership or or tested your

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Speaker 1: approached leadership. Yeah, so I will never forget. It's really

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Speaker 1: kind of early in my in my government career, and

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Speaker 1: it's what propelled me to see I O level. I

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Speaker 1: think it was two thousand and one there was a

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Speaker 1: virus called love Letter, and this virus was massive. It

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Speaker 1: was released and millions of computers were just taken down

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Speaker 1: and nobody knew how to how to stop it. And

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Speaker 1: the companies that were providing virus definitions they were trying

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Speaker 1: to put out one that works, and even if you

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Speaker 1: had it, you couldn't install it because the systems were broken,

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Speaker 1: and as soon as you turned it on, it started spreading.

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Speaker 1: I mean, it was a disaster and governments and businesses

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Speaker 1: alike were down for a long period of time. Anyway,

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Speaker 1: I was looking at all the technical information and we

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Speaker 1: were sitting around the table talking about it with our

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Speaker 1: c I O. And I was a senior network engineer

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Speaker 1: at the time, and I just said, I know how

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Speaker 1: to do it. I know how to fix it. And

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Speaker 1: I explained it at the table and it just went

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Speaker 1: over his head. And so he just turned me and said, Ron,

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Speaker 1: just do whatever you need to do, just get it done.

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Speaker 1: And so I'm like, okay. So I deputized secretaries and

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Speaker 1: application developers to basically execute the plan, and I created

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Speaker 1: a central base where everybody called back, but there was

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Speaker 1: open communication. That's what's key, solving any issues and making

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Speaker 1: sure people know what's happening. And and so within about

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Speaker 1: three days we were clean. We were the health Care Agency,

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Speaker 1: which is an important function and organization we provide health

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Speaker 1: services to the public. So three days we were done.

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Speaker 1: After that, people looked at me a little differently. They

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Speaker 1: saw that I could pick up the reins and take charge.

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Speaker 1: That was quickly promoted, which is hard to do in government.

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Speaker 1: But that's really a defining moment in my in my

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Speaker 1: career from my leadership perspective. Yeah, I think response to

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Speaker 1: a massive computer virus US is certainly a trial by

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Speaker 1: fire experience and one that really can forge leadership. Well,

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Speaker 1: let me ask about this because with South Coast a

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Speaker 1: q m D and with the climate both figuratively and literally,

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Speaker 1: we've seen environmental awareness has been on the rise. How

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Speaker 1: does that affect the work of your organization and your

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Speaker 1: department in particular. Well, there's a lot more requests for

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Speaker 1: real time data and requests for transparency and a focus

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Speaker 1: on community based ammissions reductions, which ties into the California

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Speaker 1: State Assembly Bill six seventeen to address air pollution impacts

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Speaker 1: and environmental justice communities which are really disadvantaged communities economically disadvantaged.

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Speaker 1: So we've been tasked to build solutions such as the

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Speaker 1: mobile app, also real time air monitoring and fence one

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Speaker 1: monitoring and flare notifications. So there's really, like you said,

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Speaker 1: there's a big awareness and we're delivering well and that

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Speaker 1: that's great. I would like to learn a little bit

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Speaker 1: more about the technologies that you're using in order to

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Speaker 1: detect things like changes in pollution levels. What are you

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Speaker 1: actually using to monitor and then process that data and

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Speaker 1: send it out in a way that's consumable to the

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Speaker 1: average person. Right, So, we have forty three major air

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Speaker 1: quality monitoring stations and these are ep A regulatory monitors. Recently,

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Speaker 1: we're able to use low cost sensors, which are organization

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Speaker 1: created a a special organization within to just evaluate these

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Speaker 1: sensors to see if we could use them. So we

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Speaker 1: analyze hourly data from these monitors and lend that with

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Speaker 1: National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration Air Quality Model to produce uh

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Speaker 1: AN air quality indexed right down to the localized level.

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Speaker 1: We have now more than distinct patients. So we're grabbing

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Speaker 1: all this data and we're analyzing it, and we're doing

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Speaker 1: it in almost real time, which is pretty amazing. And

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Speaker 1: to me, the cool thing about that is not just

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Speaker 1: the immediacy of that data, but then the ability to

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Speaker 1: contextualize that in a way that is meaningful to other people.

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Speaker 1: I mean, as any leader in the text space understands,

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Speaker 1: it's one thing to have access to information, it's another

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Speaker 1: thing to make that information meaningful to your in customer,

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Speaker 1: whether that is a citizen or a consumer, or another

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Speaker 1: business or even someone within the same organization. I'd love

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Speaker 1: for us to kind of segue now into talking about

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Speaker 1: emerging technologies. You've You've mentioned one that I think kind

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Speaker 1: of falls into the Internet of things category with these

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Speaker 1: sensors you were talking about, do you foresee further use

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Speaker 1: of Internet of things technologies in your work over at

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Speaker 1: South Coast a q M d well the low cost

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Speaker 1: air quality sensers our IoT and we're using these devices.

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Speaker 1: It's really enabled us to do more and provide more

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Speaker 1: accurate equality information. So I see it just moving light speed.

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Speaker 1: Especially when we have the ability of five G coming out,

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Speaker 1: We're gonna be able to pull a lot of data

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Speaker 1: chunks and provide more information quicker and better. What I'd

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Speaker 1: like to see is every phone and device have like

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Speaker 1: a little er monitor on it and make everybody essentially

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Speaker 1: a point where we can grab data so we can

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Speaker 1: better serve our communities. To me, that sounds very similar

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Speaker 1: to the accelerometers that are in phones that can be

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Speaker 1: used to detect things like earthquake shocks, for example. So

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Speaker 1: to have that similar approach with an Internet of things

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Speaker 1: perspective powered by something like five G, where you have

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Speaker 1: that low latency and high throughput and you can get

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Speaker 1: that data in real time that people can very quickly

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Speaker 1: act on it, I would imagine that that would be

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Speaker 1: an incredible tool in your toolbox to provide the services

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Speaker 1: to the region. Right, it's really near and dear to

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Speaker 1: my heart because I was born and raised here. I mean,

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Speaker 1: I'm a lifelong Angelino. And when I was a kid,

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Speaker 1: we had smag days and we'd go out and our

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Speaker 1: lungs would hurt from the smog. We had no way

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Speaker 1: of knowing information that we're trying to get, like what

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Speaker 1: is the level of small but what are the pollutants

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Speaker 1: in the air, what is those on? What is the

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Speaker 1: particular matter, what what's the carbon monoxide? And none of

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Speaker 1: that and where I work. Now, this is what we do.

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Speaker 1: This We provide that information and the app that we

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Speaker 1: developed it gives people all of that information. So you

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Speaker 1: can open it up now and see what you're You

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Speaker 1: know what your air quality is around you, and you

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Speaker 1: can make better decisions on I don't live your life.

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Speaker 1: I also love that with this discussion you always see

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Speaker 1: where the little bottlenecks are in the road through technological improvement. Right,

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Speaker 1: Occasionally your bottleneck is that the technology itself is lagging behind.

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Speaker 1: Maybe it's more on the connectivity side where you need

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Speaker 1: to have better solutions to transmit information. I think we're

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Speaker 1: now reaching a point with the five G rollout where

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Speaker 1: the communication side is in a really good space, and

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Speaker 1: I'm really excited to see from the hardware side people

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Speaker 1: developing things like the sensors that could be incredibly precise

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Speaker 1: and hopefully low maintenance so that the deployment of said

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Speaker 1: sensors could be beneficial. Right. With five G, it's a

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Speaker 1: total game changer. We'll be able to collect and distribute

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Speaker 1: data faster. It allows us to collect betterer chunks of

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Speaker 1: data more often, better use experience for a mobile app.

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Speaker 1: We could potentially replace even our campus WiFi and provide

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Speaker 1: toilet working capabilities for employees. That's just vastly improved. I mean,

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Speaker 1: we have a number of field inspectors that go on

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Speaker 1: site to various locations and with five G with that

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Speaker 1: infrastructures but don't allow them to pretty much instantaneously connect

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Speaker 1: with their office and the apps they used to do

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Speaker 1: their work. So it's yeah, it is an exciting time.

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Speaker 1: I'm just curious, are there any other emerging technologies that

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Speaker 1: you find particularly interesting or exciting, either within regard with

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Speaker 1: your work at South Coast a q m D, or

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Speaker 1: just personally. Well, I mean I can get into things

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Speaker 1: like quantum computing. Please, I'll talk about cubids, but you

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Speaker 1: know things like chat bots from the customer service experience

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Speaker 1: that's getting really good and every day is just getting better.

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Speaker 1: That AI based feedback five G. I mean, it's going

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Speaker 1: to change everything from our phone to our vehicles. We're

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Speaker 1: all going to be connected. It's really transformational. Before I

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Speaker 1: could let Ron go, I of course needed to ask

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Speaker 1: him one more thing. Who in the world of tech

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Speaker 1: leadership do you think is really killing it right now? Well,

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Speaker 1: Elon Musk, because he has just gone against a grain

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Speaker 1: every time and as winning almost every time. But even

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Speaker 1: when he loses, he's still winning because he's proving that

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Speaker 1: you have a dream, you have an idea, and it

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Speaker 1: makes sense, you can go for it. I mean, he

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Speaker 1: took on the automotive and oil industries and change the

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Speaker 1: way we drive. They forced them to develop fuel efficient,

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Speaker 1: if not completely electric vehicles and improve the world as

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Speaker 1: we know. So he's killing it. Well, Ron, thank you

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Speaker 1: again for taking time out your schedule to talk with us.

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Speaker 1: This was a fascinating conversation. I find the work you

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Speaker 1: do to be really inspiring, and your approach to leadership

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Speaker 1: with that team focus, wanting to foster and support a

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Speaker 1: team so that you can actually achieve the mission that

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Speaker 1: is uh speaking to my heart. So thank you again

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Speaker 1: for joining us. My pleasure. Thank you. Something that really

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Speaker 1: impressed me with Ron was how his love of tech

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Speaker 1: informs and shapes the way he approaches work. He uses

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Speaker 1: technology to connect people and projects, sometimes literally, and he

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Speaker 1: gets them all on the same page. Leadership and tech

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Speaker 1: are tightly intertwined in Ron's world. Teams without tech solutions

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Speaker 1: will find their jobs more difficult, but tech solutions without

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Speaker 1: a good team aren't likely to be implemented in any

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Speaker 1: sort of meaningful way. And while things in the public

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Speaker 1: sector move at a different pace than in the private sector,

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Speaker 1: the focus and emphasis around climate change has fueled a

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Speaker 1: sense of urgency in Ron's world. I'm really excited to

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Speaker 1: see how the next generation of IoT devices will give

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Speaker 1: us more insight into the world around us, potentially allowing

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Speaker 1: us to detect problems early enough so that we can

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Speaker 1: address them before they develop into serious issues. Imagine a

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Speaker 1: world in which devices with a persistent connection can, through

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Speaker 1: the power of five G, set a solution in motion

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Speaker 1: that addresses a problem before any human is even aware

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Speaker 1: of it. Now apply that same idea to every industry

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Speaker 1: and you really see the power of IoT and five G.

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Speaker 1: Be sure to subscribe to this podcast so that you

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00:25:44,840 --> 00:25:48,080
Speaker 1: don't miss any of our upcoming conversations with more leaders

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Speaker 1: in the tech space. We'll be speaking with a wide

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Speaker 1: variety of visionary tech leaders and discover what sets them apart.

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Speaker 1: This has been the restless ones. I'm Jonathan Strickland. These days,

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