LINZ CIO retires next month

Tony Lester is leaving chief information officer role at Land Information New Zealand (LINZ), after four and a half years. Lester, a member of CIO magazine#8217;s editorial advisory board, says he will stay in his post until January.

#8220;I am not fully retiring,#8221; says Lester, who has been holding ICT leadership roles in government for the past 20 years. Prior to LINZ, Lester was head of IT at Inland Revenue Department.

He is taking on a consultancy role, but will spend most of his time working on a lifestyle block he and his wife are turning into a golf course.

In a previous interview with CIO, Lester had said he was fortunate to have worked in organisations that were strong on executive development. Two such development programmes he attended greatly influenced him.

One of them was the executive programme at the University of Virginia #8212; Darden School of Business.

Lester was with the Inland Revenue Department when he attended the six-week programme in the US. He described it as #8220;a fascinating experience#8221; that covered general business issues right across the board.

In 2006, Lester attended the advanced management programme at the Insead School in France. The first two weeks of the programme were similar to the course at Darden. Though, it was the remainder of the course that really made an impression on Lester. #8220;The last two weeks really focused on yourself personally and made you stand back and look at yourself from a personal direction; where you want to take your life, your career, your family, everything around that. And that was life-changing.#8221;