2023 CIO Awards Winners

New Zealand CIO of the Year

New Zealand’s CIO of the Year will demonstrate how they have positioned the role of CIO strategically within the company. They will be able to show innovation and key successes achieved in the past 12 months and into the future and show how this fits with the company's overall business strategy.

Sponsored by:

New Zealand Rugby Commercial

Angela Nash

NZ Rugby Commercial (NZRC) manages the commercial activities related to rugby to enable a laser focus on their customers and delivering commercial success back to rugby in New Zealand. They live by Te Ara Rangatira, the four pou of The Rugby Way – Be Welcoming, Be Our Best, Be Passionate and Play Fair.

As the Chief Information and Technology Officer, Angela set a goal for NZRC to be the leaders in utilising technology inside rugby in previously not-seen-before ways and creating back-end systems that deliver world-class capability to commercial and rugby teams both on and off the field. These ambitions led Angela and her team to focus on the data landscape, launching a Data Centre of Excellence (DCoE) and Data Governance Committee with representation from all business units and key stakeholders. The team undertook a full re-architecting and re-building of the data warehouse and SSO solution to scale rapidly. Along with other innovative products this work enabled Angela to drastically move forward technology within NZRC, as a true partner and enabler to the business.

Angela hires smart people and lets them be smart, enabling autonomous action for the entire team by creating supportive systems and processes. Deliberately open communication allows for a hightrust, empowered environment and her leadership style promotes a trusted environment where the team can openly challenge and debate outcomes in a healthy way. As a result of Angela's vision and leadership technology inside NZ Rugby is unrecognisable from only a few years ago and provides a platform for more some exciting plans on what comes next.

Datacom

Alex Corkin

Before his recent move to Datacom, Alex introduced significant changes in other organisations that shaped his growth into an emerging ICT leader. At Livestock Improvement Corporation (LIC) he identified to create collaboration between departments and creating new operating model concepts. As a platform architect he led Smart Wearables Integration with MINDA, a high-profile project where managing complex stakeholders was critical to success and fast deployment. In his next role, at startup FarmIQ, Alex designed and implemented a regular product development lifecycle, turned around the software delivery process and introduced a culture of data-informed decision-making and learning. Though his ability to solve complex problems involving of people, process, technology, and the intersection of humanity and technology, Alex is focused on broadening his impact by seeking out ever more significant challenges in ever more challenging roles in his journey to ICT leadership.

Emerging ICT Leader of the Year

The Emerging ICT Leader Award celebrates and encourages the exceptional ICT talent of professionals under the age of 33 years (on 8 August 2022). We are looking for the future CIO’s and leaders of the ICT sector in New Zealand; people who have demonstrated outstanding ICT initiative.

Sponsored by:

Business Transformation through Digital and IT

This award honours the achievements of organisations that have successfully planned and executed a Business Transformation initiative or initiatives through the use of digital and disruptive technologies. By using technology to innovate and transform their business they have produced a range of benefits for the organisation.

Sponsored by:

Auckland Council

Auckland Council's ICT Innovation team developed a low cost, high impact solution using a data telemetry network, open source and real-time data reporting technologies. It was designed to enable efficiency, planning, and decision-making, delivering a triple bottom line of business value, environmental impact (animal welfare, native bird protection, stream water quality) and community empowerment.

Testing the solution took the team to remote off grid locations where traditional network or power options were unreliable and patchy such as valleys where streams and pest traps are often located. As a result of this initiative Auckland Council has created a foundation for future innovations such as water resource monitoring, waste processing, and building energy/carbon impact reporting. From generating value of real-time data to create insights, improve business processes and inform decisions, it is changing the organisation's approach realise the opportunities for to deliver operational improvements and track progress towards a sustainable future.

Te Aka Toitū Trust

Trust aspires to eradicate the digital divide in the Eastern Bay of Plenty, one of the most economically and socially disadvantaged regions in Aotearoa. One of the founding kaupapa for the Trust is that affordable digital connectivity in the home should be considered a basic human right and ensuring internet access for every student and family connected to the internet means that no-one is left behind.

Overcoming immense technical and funding challenges, the Trust has enabled low decile students in Whakatāne and Kawerau to gain access to an affordable device, quality internet connectivity and digital learning that is accessible. Now, the positive impact of connectivity has had a much wider impact beyond connections, including enhanced community wellbeing, health, and social benefit which includes building pride, self-resilience and mana.

Community Tech Champions

The Community Tech Champions Award honours and showcases outstanding initiatives promoting digital inclusion with the goal of educating, exposing and engaging New Zealanders previously underrepresented in the ICT sector. Programmes should address diversity issues and encourage or develop New Zealand’s digital capabilities.

Sponsored by:

Best ICT Team Culture & Inclusion

The Best ICT Team Culture & Inclusion Award recognises outstanding ICT team culture, recruitment, inclusion, and diversity practices that contributes to the team's success. The ICT industry is challenged by skills shortages, and today has a strong focus on Diversity & Inclusion at board and executive levels. Practices, policies, and strategies that foster a modern, inclusive, and open workforce and team culture lead to excellence in retention and nurturing of a diverse IT staff and drive a competitive advantage for the entire organisation. The aim of this award is to celebrate organisations that recognise how culture and inclusion enables business success and that see recruitment, retention, and training future talent as a key part of the integral recipe for high performing IT teams.

Sponsored by:

Southern Cross Travel Insurance

The extensive pressures of the pandemic on the travel industry saw the SCTI's team focus on innovation and transformation to ramp back up to serve its customers better, driven by a “possibilities focus” driven by a responsive and supportive CEO and leadership team. This resulted in the creation of the Digital, Data and Infrastructure Team, bringing all the digital roles together in one group, with a focus on enhanced digital delivery, customer experience and connection to business outcomes. A new KPI structure was created, where digital delivery has direct links to the vision and success markers for the business. The team changes were designed from the ground up, with the ICT staff moving to a devops model and a one team approach. Transparency, inclusiveness and interrelationship of goals between the team has brought about a huge shift in team engagement in less than a year and a remarkable cadence of delivery, with quick delivery of new digital products and enhanced customer benefits.

Christchurch City Council

Christchurch City Council (CCC) Smart Christchurch programme co-creates and trials innovative solutions and approaches for the city. The Smart Christchurch team is successfully delivering a programme of initiatives that focus on improving environmental outcomes in the council area. These initiatives include water quality monitoring, earthquake sensing, rubbish bin contents sensing, and early fire detection network to name a few. Smart Christchurch’s initiatives enable better decision making and response. For example, responding to a river pollution event, understanding at-risk places after an earthquake, making rubbish collection more efficient, and responding faster and more safely to forest fire events.

Sustainability Through Technology

The Sustainability through Technology Award, sponsored by Younity, honours the achievements of organisations that have successfully planned and executed a sustainability initiative(s) through the use of technology. Using technology and innovation to drive a sustainable initiative within an organisation that has produced a range of benefits for the organisation and/ or communities. The initiative or project could address any/or all of the three pillars of sustainability: economic, environmental, and social (profits, planet and people).

Sponsored by:

Outstanding Contribution to Technology and Business in New Zealand

This award is given to a high profile business person from a public or private company whose contribution has significantly and uniquely impacted the greater New Zealand or global business community in an information technology sense over the course of his or her career. The award recognises people at the intersection of business and technology. That could be someone who has had a long and successful career in IT, who has contributed significantly to the effectiveness of business through technology, or someone who has had great success in a technology company. The recipient is selected by the judging panel. However, if you believe you know a worthy candidate please drop us a line and let us know why you think they should be considered.