Nominations are now open for the Canadian CIO of the Year Awards   It’s that time again. IT World Canada (ITWC) and the CIO Association of Canada are once again looking to recognize Canada’s technology leadership in their annual CIO of the Year awards. These awards look to recognize the accomplishments of technology leaders in […]

Five Canadian IT leaders, representing various industries and organization sizes, were honoured as winners of the Info-Tech Research Group’s annual 2023 CIO Awards. The winners are as follows: Sandee Dela Cruz, Searchlight Pharma Inc. Scott Fossenier, Regina Catholic Schools Jonathan Green, Guelph Police Services Brent Lee, Legislative Assembly of British Columbia  Carrie-Ann Williamson, Town of […]

The CIO Association of Canada (CIOCAN) and the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management announced the launch today of the CIO Executive Leadership Program and the CIO.D professional designation. “While IQ and technical skills are important ‘threshold capabilities’ required to become a successful leader, they are by themselves not enough,” said Walid Hejazi, professor […]

Why are there still frequent, expensive and embarrassing cybersecurity incidents? With all the investments organizations are making to strengthen their defences, and all the media attention devoted to incidents, you’d think everyone has received the message and taken action to eliminate the possibility of more incidents. I’m surprised by the recent headlines that say otherwise: […]

Digital technology investments were once a factor of differentiation, but have now become the baseline of digital expectations in government. Today, digital is everywhere and organizations are preparing for when digital transformation will cease to be a driver for change. The shift to digital government has accelerated quickly and many are now moving into a […]

Companies that grow better are the ones that align the capabilities of their business and technology groups, a new trends report by global research company Forrester revealed. For the report, Forrester interviewed business, technology, and marketing decision-makers at 23 organizations with an annual revenue of US$100 million or more, including IBM, McKinsey, Globant, Infosys, TCS and […]

Today, IT World Canada (ITWC), in association with the CIO Association of Canada, presented the CIO of the Year Awards. The presentations concluded the second day of this year’s Leadership and Digital Transformation Conference and Awards, whose focus was on the challenges and opportunities of digital transformation. “We have been celebrating the accomplishments of Canadian […]

The CIO Association of Canada (CIOCAN), held its annual Peer Forum in Toronto earlier this month, an event that brings together chief information officers (CIOs) from across Canada for two days of networking and discussions on topics affecting technology leaders. This year’s theme was Bridging Innovation and Delivery: A Balancing Act, and national president Philippe […]

Inflation is greatly impacting consumers of technology as software and cloud vendors respond to increased costs by increasing prices. Sourcing, procurement and vendor management (SPVM) leaders who are facing the effects of economic headwinds are searching for ways to reduce the short-term costs of software and cloud contracts to offset vendor price increases and halt […]

Info-Tech Research Group has released a new report highlighting the latest industry research for information technology (IT) departments and leaders managing hybrid-first organizations. More than 500 professionals, located mainly in the U.S. and Canada, were surveyed for The State of Hybrid Work in IT: A Trend Report (registration required). The report’s main findings revealed that […]

Anyone who visits the website of the CIO Association of Canada (CIOCAN) today and lands on the page enumerating the group’s various chapters will notice a key region of the country missing. Since its formation in 2004, CIOCAN, an organization whose membership is made up of chief information officers (CIOs) and senior IT executives, has […]

Every executive should be able to justify the cost and demonstrate the business value of their initiatives, including data and analytics (D&A) leaders. This becomes even more critical as IT budgets tighten and CIOs are under greater pressure to demonstrate return on investment from IT initiatives. The key for chief data & analytics officers (CDAOs) […]

Women in tech often share stories about how challenging it is to be the only woman in the room, but occasionally you can use it to your advantage. For Gayleen Gray and Fariba Rawhani, being the only two women at a CIO dinner a few years ago forged a special connection. As Gayleen, Assistant Vice […]

The CIO Association of Canada (CIOCAN) brings together chief information officers (CIOs) and chief information security officers (CISOs) from organizations across Canada. It has chapters in most major cities and continues to expand its footprint, providing Canadian CIOs with a peer network and an organization that creates a Canadian community where CIOs can share their […]

The biggest mistake infosec leaders make is putting too many resources into regulatory compliance and preventing cyber attacks, says a Cisco Systems official. “Most companies don’t prioritize” their work, Carey Spearman, a senior security consultant at Cisco told the Toronto Cybersecurity Conference on Tuesday. Worse, he said, “they don’t think like a hacker. A lot […]

According to a recent survey from Gartner Inc., the public sector has the longest buying cycle for technology purchases, at 22 months on average. Gartner surveyed 1,120 executives, including 79 from the public sector, residing in North America, Western Europe or Asia/Pacific regions. Seven per cent of respondents were from Canada, while 36 per cent […]

With an increasing number of cyber threats aimed at their organizations, and having to deal with tight budgets, chief information security officers (CISOs) can feel an oppressive weight on their shoulders. There’s a solution, says Phil Venables, currently vice-president and chief information security officer of Google Cloud, and the former CISO at U.S. financial giant […]

With files from Paul Barker The massive Rogers network outage on July 8 took down the Interac payment system, forcing Canadian merchants to turn away customers paying with debit cards. After its services returned to normal, the financial company issued an apology along with its commitment to add another supplier to increase its service’s resilience. […]

Lily Mok, vice president, analyst at Gartner, says there are three ways chief information officers (CIOs) can attract and retain IT talent in 2022 and beyond: Prioritize monitoring and raising pay competitiveness, build flexibility into IT compensation strategy, and last but not least, equip managers for successful pay conversations. Compensation, she wrote in a recent […]

B.C.’s chief information officer this week outlined the importance of verifiable credentials (VCs) and how they can form the cornerstone of not only the province’s next digital identity strategy, but a national one as well. Speaking at the IdentityNORTH Annual Summit 2022 in Toronto, CJ Ritchie said a key reason why they are so critical […]

The great push to modernize enterprise applications is now underway, but many organizations still aren’t clear what modernization means — or what role cloud should play in the process.  According to a survey of 600 enterprises in the U.S., U.K. and Asia-Pacific, more than half plan to modernize their custom applications within the next 12 […]

A former chief legal officer to the House of Commons will be Canada’s next privacy commissioner. Philippe Dufresne has been nominated by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to replace Daniel Therrien, whose term just expired. Canadian Information Commissioner Caroline Maynard was appointed interim privacy commissioner on June 3rd, holding the post until the appointment of the […]

This year, our CIO of the year for the Non Profit category is Mazen Joukhadar, Vice President and Chief Information, Privacy and Security Officer. Mazen’s award submission illustrates the power of shared services collaborations in delivering transformative outcomes across multiple organizations to achieve the broader goal of improving health care for a region. It proves […]

This year, we had a tie for winner of our 2022 CIO of the Year in the Private Sector, and Rex Lee, CIO for Canadian Tire Corporation (CTC) is one of these well-deserving winners. Rex led the team responsible for decomposing and rebuilding the Canadian Tire Retail ecommerce platform so that it could go from […]