CIO50 2018 - Meet the Judges

With the third annual CIO50 in full swing and nominations open until August 16, it’s time to meet our esteemed judges. CIO Australia has assembled a stellar cast of industry leaders to weigh in on this year’s stories of business innovation and leadership.

From executives of big brands to CIOs of private and not-for-profit organisations, and well as heads of research and think tanks, this colourful cast of characters will determine this year’s CIO50 list.

The list recognises technology executives who are driving innovation and influencing rapid change across their organisations.

In determining this year’s Top 50 leaders, the judges will no doubt understand that the successful CIOs will be business leaders who enable their organisations to meet the needs of their customers or communities through technology.

Unmistakably, CIOs are transforming to become business strategists, cleverly adopting innovation and continually shifting towards an ICT visionary role. The CIO’s responsibilities have switched from managing cost centres to a stronger business orientation.

Indeed, it is a pivotal time in the life and times of a CIO, and now more important than ever to recognise and applaud the ICT leaders shaping the future of industry and government.

Let’s meet our Judges:

Pip Marlow

CEO, Customer Marketplace, Suncorp | ARN Hall of Fame

Pip Marlow is Chief Executive Officer Customer Marketplace. She is responsible for driving customer focus into all aspects of Suncorp’s business including strategy, customer care, partnerships and innovative solutions that add value for customers.

Prior to joining Suncorp in 2016, Marlow was the Managing Director of Microsoft Australia for six years.

She is a non-executive director of the Australian Rugby Union (ARU), sits on the Vice-Chancellor's Advisory Board at UTS and is a member of Chief Executive Women (CEW), an organisation committed to supporting and growing women in executive positions.

She enjoys working in a vibrant, collaborative environment, and is an advocate for flexible and diverse workplaces that empower people through trust and accountability.

Bridget Gray
Managing director, Harvey Nash

Bridget Gray is the managing director of Harvey Nash in the Australasian region, and also leads the global Harvey Nash Media, Digital and Communications practice. 

Gray joined Harvey Nash in 2007, developing the media, communications and digital practice before heading up the flagship CIO practice in Harvey Nash's London head office. She sits on the Management Committee of Females in IT and Telecoms (FiTT) and regularly gives keynotes and participates in panel discussions at client and not-for-profit events, as well as regular commentator in the media, contributing to discussions on digital, talent, IT, recruitment practices, collaboration, innovation and gender balance in the workforce.

She has also worked for Redgrave Partners as a principal, Robert Walters Search Practice as head of search and selection (technology and operations), and as a manager of IT commerce contract and permanent. She is a Hogan accredited consultant, able to deliver constructive psychological assessment of candidates and incumbents in roles to enable better retention, development, succession planning and hiring practices.

Mark Bailey
CEO, Intersect Australia

Marc Bailey is the CEO of research productivity company Intersect Australia. Formerly, Marc served for five years as Macquarie University's first CIO, director and Treasurer of the Australian Access Federation, director of AARNET, as NSW and ACT chair of the Council of Australian University Directors of Information Technology and a director of Intersect Australia. 

He represented Macquarie in the NSW Health and University CIO Forum, the Sydney Basin Fibre Network project board, the Australian Hearing Hub Consortium. Marc is an information innovator driven by making a quantifiable difference. He complements a technical generalist background with variable focus, having worked on three continents for diverse private and public sector organisations for over two decades. He joined MacU from his previous role as CTO for Objective Corporation.

He has also informed governmental policy and information management at federal, state and local levels in Australia and New Zealand; whole-of-government change management in the Scottish Government and Welsh Assembly; and standards development for the European Union. As an entrepreneur, he consulted to organisations like Cisco, Apple, Microsoft, Telstra, Optus, Mars, Enbridge, American Express, the North-Western Health Care network of Victoria, St Vincent's Hospital, and Charles Darwin University.

Jenny Beresford
Research director, Gartner

Jenny Beresford is a research director with Gartner’s CIO Advisory team. Beresford has been both a consultant to, and a CIO in, global enterprises experiencing market disruption. She has also served as a vice-president and general manager in consulting and technology firms, as a digital program manager, through to hands-on roles in strategic planning, change management, innovation, enterprise architecture and portfolio management.

She has walked in the shoes of the contemporary CIO who is leading digital and bi modal practice, complex change, and innovation. She has traveled extensively, moved continents frequently, and worked in the U.K., Europe, India, Japan, China, Hong Kong, Mexico,U.S. and Canada.

Gary Whatley
Director, CIO Advisory

Garry Whatley has more than 30 years’ IT industry experience and has held a number of strategic ‘c’ level roles and board positions. Whatley has extensive experience in digital transformation, IT governance, and major organisation restructuring and change programs.

He currently works for CIO Advisor, which provides independent advice to boards and executives. He is also involved with 99tests, a crowdsource testing startup in India and is Deputy Chairman of Multiple Sclerosis Limited. His executive experience includes: interim CIO at Coffrey International; vice-president, IT and business services for Staples; CIO and business transformation executive at Corporate Express; general manager IT and online solutions for Sony; as well as various other senior roles in consulting, technology and change management.

David Kennedy
CIO, Transaction Services Group

David Kennedy is the Chief Information Officer of Transaction Services Group, a global payment solutions provider with headquarters in Auckland. 

He was voted #2 in the 2018 NZ CIO 100 index and also a finalist for CIO of the year in 2017. The TSG role covers being the Group CIO for 7 companies in the UK, Australia, US and NZ. 

Kennedy is a member of the editorial advisory board of CIO New Zealand. He is Chairman of a group of IT/Digital Executives (www.TechLeaders.nz) who are working on country wide issues with industry and government, He is a director for Computer Culture (a Christchurch-based company), Chairman of the advisory board for the Future CIO Programme at the University of Auckland and advisory council member for Beyond Trust, an American security product company. 

He is a well respected thought leader in the space of Digital and Cyber and is a regular speaker at international conferences.

Mark Gay
CIO, CrownBet

Mark has spent most of his career slugging away at corporate jobs to pay for a lifestyle of horses and travel that he probably couldn’t afford. By day he’s a digital guy, and by night he’s a dad and wannabe horse whisperer, but his real passion lies in helping organisations transition from being analogue, to being digital. 

He’s worked across education, logistics, financial services, and entertainment industries, and has held fancy job titles like Chief Technology Officer, Chief Information Officer, and Chief Digital Officer. Mark holds a Master of Entrepreneurship and Innovation (MEI) from Swinburne University of Technology, is a graduate member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors (AICD), and was listed as the number one technology chief in CIO Australia's CIO50 list in 2016.

He was also crowned as one of Australia's most outstanding Gay and Lesbian business leaders in 2018.

Dr Malcolm Thatcher
CEO and founder, Strategance Group

Dr Malcolm Thatcher is CEO of Strategance Group – a consulting firm focused on assisting organisations with Digital Strategy and Governance. Previously, Dr Thatcher has served as CIO for Queensland Health and for the Mater Hospital Group in Brisbane. In early 2018, Dr Thatcher published a new book titled “The Digital Governance Handbook for CEOs and Governing Boards.

Bill Le Blanc
CIO, SA Health

Bill Le Blanc is Executive Director of eHealth Systems and the Chief Information Officer of SA Health. Bill has worked in ICT for over 30 years and has worked throughout Australia, Asia, and the USA. Prior to joining SA Government, Le Blanc spent over 20 years in the private sector spanning in senior roles with multinational ICT vendors. 

His group provides the technology for 80 South Australia Government hospitals and health services. His team of circa 600 ICT professionals supports major healthcare transformation and he is responsible for an annual budget of $200M.

In 2017, he was ranked as #1 in CIO Australia’s CIO50, and in 2016 he polled at #4

Tim Sheedy
Principal Advisor, Ecosystm, and founder at Singularity Research

Tim Sheedy brings more than 20 years of experience in designing and implementing Cloud, IoT, AI and Automation strategies to the Ecosystm network, to support businesses in their IT decisions.

In his previous role, Sheedy spent 12 years at Forrester Research, most recently as a Principal Analyst, helping IT leaders improve their digital capabilities. Prior to this, he was Research Director for IT Solutions at IDC in Australia, where he assisted IT vendors in designing solutions to better fit market requirements, and IT buyers in improving the effectiveness of their IT functions.

Beyond the office, he boasts an international reputation as an entertaining and informative public speaker on the key trends in the IT market. He graduated from University of Technology Sydney with a BA majoring in Marketing and Research.

Dr Vladas Leonas
Director technology and architecture, NSW Department of Finance, Services and Innovation 

Dr Vladas Leonas has an outstanding academic and professional background in computer science and communications. He has been recognised throughout the world in this field. Vladas is a Fellow of the Australian Computer Society; he is also a Fellow of Engineers Australia.

In 1991, Leonas joined OTC/Telstra and in 1996 he became divisional CIO of Telstra’s Payphones Division, where he participated in replacement of 35,000 public payphones across Australia and the biggest smart cards project in Australia. During this period he became an expert in smart cards and his expertise in this area has been recognised worldwide.

His assignments include Regional Director of Technology of GTech (solutions for lotteries), CIO of the NSW Department of Public Works and Services and CTO of the Australian Centre for Advanced Computing and Communications (provision of supercomputing services and hosted/managed data centre services for commercial and Government clients) – where he has led a team that has delivered the very first over 1 TFlop supercomputer in Australia, CIO of the NSW Department of Housing, CIO of the NSW Transport Construction Authority, Group CIO and Deputy Group CIO of Transport for NSW, CIO of WestConnex – Sydney Motorway Corporation.

After spending a year as a principal consultant to the UNSW IT, he has returned to the NSW State Government and currently is acting as a Director of GovDC and Marketplace operations.

Craig Wishart
CIO, KPMG Australia

Craig Wishart is the CIO of KPMG Australia. Formerly, he was the group CIO and CTO of UXC as well as the CIO and executive GM of customer care at Service Stream.

Wishart's mandate as CIO is deliver and execute a conjoined business and ICT plan and operational service management across the business. Craig’s experience extends from mining/resources, media, telecommunications, government, and banking and finance.

He has achieved significant results throughout his career, leading global business transformations, management of large scale customer facing operations (national and international) and has provided management consulting to many ASX listed and global organisations.

He has delivered large scale digital business transformations, cloud services implementations (SAAS, PAAS, IAAS), legacy decommissions and service operations change programs (AWS, Azure). He is an experienced cloud, digital transformation, collaboration, mobility, and agile business architect.

Additionally, he has experience with the implementation of outsource and offshore programs (in India, Philippines, Vietnam, NZ, Australia, Israel) across ICT teams, contact centres and business teams.