Stories by Tim Mendham

Agile methodology is moving out of the software development team and becoming a core part of IT and business collaboration.

Women in IT face cultural and career barriers in their jobs. But those who also hold senior c-level positions face a double set of pressures – gender and business-based issues.

Monash Health’s Dr Philip Nesci is not your typical CIO. He holds a doctorate in nuclear physics and authored a book on "Inelastic Proton Scattering as a Test of Nuclear Spectroscopy" in the late 1970s.

When you’re helping to run a multi-billion dollar enterprise and close to 10 per cent of revenue comes in on one day of the year, then you know there are serious pressures to keep the lights on. That day is Melbourne Cup day, and the enterprise is Tabcorp.

After completing a graduate training program at the Commonwealth Bank, Bettina Wilcox realised that the technology sector was where she really wanted to be.

Neill Rose-Innes has a strong focus on the business as CIO and GM of operations at Mortgage Choice. But he says acquiring and retaining customers is what it's really all about.

Technology projects are often seen as a ‘recipe for disaster’ but you can change that perception with good governance.

“The phrase ‘IT and the business’ does not sit well with me,” says Andrew Lock, CIO of George Weston Foods (GWF).

Carsten Larsen is not the CIO of the organisation he works for, despite the fact that he talks, lives and breathes IT. “I love IT, it’s my passion,” he says.

In the second and final part of this series on skills, we look at why providing IT staff with more formal education and hiring people with non-IT degrees may help to address the shortage of talent.

When Bill Weeks took over as CIO of the US asset-recovery company, SquareTwo Financial, he saw 70 per cent of his development team out the door. Most left of their own accord; he fired the rest.

Ajay Bhatia, CIO at Carsales.com is one of three CIOs facing unique challenges at online classified sites where delivering digital services is at the heart of their organisations.

A billion dollar enterprise that employs just over 4500 people. An organisation that is pushing the boundaries of new communications technologies. A corporation that is constantly developing new products and services to reach the widest audience, both within Australia and internationally. And a business that has just passed its 80th birthday, and is a technology leader in its industry.

Not many CIOs would have 23 million stakeholders, nor would they be working for an organisation that has been around for more than a century, has an organisation-wide budget of $4.6 billion, and an involvement in some of the most controversial and sensitive social issues in the history of the country.

“Giving the business the freedom to be the business” is what Peter Powell sees as his main task.