CIO50

Byron Connolly

Editor-in-chief, CIO Australia and associate editor, CSO Australia

Byron Connolly has 25 years’ experience as a journalist and editor. In his current role as Editor-in-Chief at CIO Australia, he is responsible for commissioning, writing and editing content for the brand. He also facilitates roundtables and conferences for senior IT and business executives and creates content from these events.

Prior to this role, Byron was a Senior Writer and Editor at Editor Group, a Sydney-based corporate writing agency, where he produced editorial material for some of the world’s top technology and consulting companies.

Byron was Editor of technology channel publication, CRN Australia, published by Haymarket Media Group, and held senior editorial roles at technology publications ITNews and Information Week at Penton Media and APN News and Media.

He was also Client Services Director at public relations firm Upstream Australia (now Bite Global).

David Binning

Associate editor, CIO Australia

CIO Australia’s Associate Editor, David Binning has been covering the IT&T, finance and healthcare sectors in ANZ, APAC and the UK for 25 years, working as a journalist and editor for mastheads including Computerworld, ARN, The AFR and SMH, The Australian, Reuters, ComputerWeekly, The Times of London, ZDNet and The Economist.

Cathy O’Sullivan

Editor, CIO New Zealand

Cathy O’Sullivan is Editor for CIO New Zealand, based in Auckland. Cathy has worked in digital, print and broadcast media for almost two decades in newsrooms across New Zealand and Europe. She has a keen interest in emerging and disruptive technologies.

John Sutherland

Chief information officer, Ramsay Health Care

John Sutherland is Chief Information Officer at Ramsay Health Care. Ramsay is an ASX50-listed company with revenue of $11.6 billion and employing more than 77,000 people across 11 countries. Operating c.480 hospitals, specialist clinics, primary care and pharmacy businesses, Ramsay is the market leader in Australia and Europe.

As CIO, John works closely with the CEO and ExCo to establish the digital strategy focused on our clinicians’ connectedness, patients’ experience and employee performance while maintaining the highest standard of clinical care and quality outcomes for their customers.

John is an advisor to the Board of the Australian Digital Health Agency, an Organising Committee member for Health Information and Management Systems Society Asia Pacific and is guest lecturer to post graduate students at Macquarie University.

Jenny Beresford

Digital strategist, MarketBrook

Jenny Beresford is an internationally experienced digital and technology specialist, with a background in management consulting, as a digital business advisor, and as a CIO. Her professional roles include CIO with Pearson in APAC, CIO at Swinburne University, and executive positions with NAB, Proudfoot Consulting, ANZ Bank, Mahindra-BT, Extraprise CRM Consulting and SMS Consulting Group.

She has lived and worked in Australia, Hong Kong, UK and India. Her qualifications include a BA (Fine Arts and English Literature) and an MBA (Marketing), each completed with GPA average 6.5 (High Distinction) from the University Of Queensland. She is a Graduate Member of the AICD, and a 30 year+ member of the ACS.

Recently Jenny has been an independent advisor to CIOs, CDOs, CEOs and Boards in diverse sectors, industries and organisations, located across the world from Russia to China, UK to NZ, Belgium to Brazil - as Research Director (Strategy and Innovation) with Gartner.

Bridget Gray

Vice president of IT (Asia-Pacific), Korn Ferry

Bridget Gray is Vice President IT of Korn Ferry, responsible for leading digital and technical transformation talent acquisition capabilities and solutions across Asia Pacific.

Bridget is passionate about supporting clients navigate the ever-evolving global technology and digital ecosystem and has spent the past two decades partnering with them to address their current and future talent requirements. Although her career has been varied in nature, technology has always been a central focus.

Prior to joining Korn Ferry, Bridget was in an executive role for 11 years at a global recruitment and outsourcing organisation where she launched the Asia Pacific business and held accountability for recruitment, executive search and offshore solutions. Prior to this, she led various talent businesses across APJ and Europe.

Bridget is also a Management Committee member of Females in IT and Telecoms, a well-established not-for-profit organisation in Australia. She is also an advisory board member for digital intelligence business Which-50.

Tim Sheedy

Advisor, Ecosystm

Tim Sheedy is a principal advisor at Ecosystm - a new age technology research and advisory firm. 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. In his free time, Tim enjoys playing football (badly!) and tennis, and watching rugby. But while he may enjoy that, he spends most of his time driving his two children to various sporting and social activities.

Linus Lai

Vice president, software and services, IDC

Linus Lai is a member of the Asia/Pacific software and services research group. He has more than 20 years of IT experience in the region. Based in Sydney, Australia, he has experience in several cloud, software, and services programs in Asia/Pacific excluding Japan (APEJ), which covers a wide range of technology and services markets across 13 countries.

In this role, he is responsible for providing insights and analyses in enterprise adoption, integration, and management of these solutions. This includes sourcing strategies, vendor selection, and identifying emerging trends in business and technology solutions across technology buyers in the region.

Lai is a founding member of IDC Asia/Pacific’s Emerging Technology Advisory Council and is a recipient of numerous awards for country, regional, and quality research contributions. In his previous role as head of research in Southeast Asia, he developed and grew IDC’s presence in the region.

Lai is frequently quoted in various publications and media outlets and is a regular presenter at industry forums, client events, and strategic workshops. Prior to joining IDC, he worked with a large outsourcing service provider that focused on retail banking solutions. He holds a master of science degree from the University of Lincoln, United Kingdom.

Ursula Phillips

Founder and principal, Batea Coaching and Consulting

The former CIO of Real Pet Food Company and PepsiCo Australia and New Zealand, Ursula has placed in the CIO50 three times since its inception, including #8 in 2019 and #13 in 2020. Ursula is passionate about the role of technology to innovate and enable business growth through customer experience, operating efficiencies, and insights.

A professional coach and mentor, Ursula is an advocate for making IT and broader business more inclusive. Ursula is a founding member of Blue Dream Architects, a group of CIOs which work to inspire and create outstanding technology leaders from all societal groups.

Kathleen Mackay

Chief information officer, RACT

Kathleen Mackay is the Chief Information Technology Officer at RACT and a Digital Strategy Advisor in the public sector consulting practice at Publicis Sapient. She has more than 20 years’ experience within the technology sector and recently claimed the top spot in the IDG Australian CIO of the Year – the first women to receive this prestigious award for her contribution and achievements. In addition to having a wide range of technology skills and a very strong track record in delivering business transformations, Kathleen has exceptional leadership and stakeholder management skills. She has a lifelong passion for bringing fun and sustainability to the workplace and her mission is to create productive, digitally enabled workplaces that enable staff to thrive.

Kathleen was awarded Australian CIO of the Year in recognition of her contribution to transforming NSW government services whilst at Revenue NSW. Kathleen commenced at Revenue NSW in 2018 as Executive Director of Strategy and Transformation with a remit to accelerate transformation. She demonstrated personal flexibility and adaptability in taking on new roles and served as Executive Director of Fines and Debt Collection before moving on to the Chief Digital Officer role. She led and persisted unrelentingly in driving an incredible portfolio of change during her tenure.