University of Auckland ITS director Liz Coulter resigns

Liz Coulter has resigned from the University of Auckland as director of IT services.

Coulter held the role for more than five years and is working on a transition plan with Stephen Whiteside, the university Chief Digital Officer, before she leaves next year in February.

She joined the University of Auckland from the University of Queensland, where she was Associate Director, Strategy Planning and Client Relations, ITS.

In an email to staff announcing her resignation, Whiteside wrote: “Liz has driven a number of successful initiatives, such as improvements to our wireless, which has increased student satisfaction, the development of a university Women in IT initiative, improvements to our ITS culture and sponsorship of the agile and flexible IT delivery programme.”

He also cited her work on implementing changes to better support the IT needs of researchers.

“She leaves ITS in great shape to support the strong programme of activity we currently have, to provide a foundation for digital transformation,” he wrote.

The head of ITS at the University of Auckland leads one of the biggest ICT shops in the country. In the 2016 CIO100, the University of Auckland reported having an ICT team of 404, managing 62,399 devices including BYOD.

Coulter is also president of the Tuakiri NZ Access Federation and represents New Zealand as the Chair of the NZ ICT Committee and is on the CAUDIT executive team.

She is a second generation ICT director.

“Technology has been there through my life,” says Coulter, whose father Alan Coulter, was director of the Prentice Computer Centre and then executive advisor to the ITS director at the University of Queensland (UQ). Her father also started the AusCert computer emergency response team.

“I grew up on Moore’s law,” she told CIO New Zealand In a previous interview.

Their careers also intersected. When Alan Coulter was an executive advisor at the University of Queensland, his daughter was associate director, strategy and policy.

Liz Coulter at the CIO roundtable on ‘Enterprise mobility: Platform for growth and innovation’.

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