Industry stalwart and former CEO of the Australian Information Industry Association (AIIA), Ian Birks, has passed away. Birks had a long history in the Australian ICT industry. He was CEO at the AIIA between 2008 and 2011 and also served as chair at the IT Industry Innovation Council between 2010 and 2013. He was most recently the CEO at Australian Services Roundtable. Birks spent 25 years between 1987 and 2012 as director of IT industry research firm, Ideas International Limited. Ideas was acquired by Gartner in 2012. He was also a member of the Australian government’s Small Business Ministerial Advisory Council, the CSIRO Digital Productivity Flagship and Services Advisory Committee, and chair of the government’s IT Industry Innovation Council. The AIIA said on Tuesday that Birks “brought with him stature and integrity, a sharp strategic mind and selfless generosity to his colleagues and peers. “Ian was more than a colleague, AIIA chair, Kee Wong said in a statement. “He was an outstanding leader and voice in advocating the role of ICT in driving Australia’s economy.” “His passing is a great personal loss to me – and of course, a sad loss for the industry,” he said. Related content opinion Website spoofing: risks, threats, and mitigation strategies for CIOs In this article, we take a look at how CIOs can tackle website spoofing attacks and the best ways to prevent them. By Yash Mehta Dec 01, 2023 5 mins CIO Cyberattacks Security brandpost Sponsored by Catchpoint Systems Inc. Gain full visibility across the Internet Stack with IPM (Internet Performance Monitoring) Today’s IT systems have more points of failure than ever before. Internet Performance Monitoring provides visibility over external networks and services to mitigate outages. By Neal Weinberg Dec 01, 2023 3 mins IT Operations brandpost Sponsored by Zscaler How customers can save money during periods of economic uncertainty Now is the time to overcome the challenges of perimeter-based architectures and reduce costs with zero trust. By Zscaler Dec 01, 2023 4 mins Security feature LexisNexis rises to the generative AI challenge With generative AI, the legal information services giant faces its most formidable disruptor yet. That’s why CTO Jeff Reihl is embracing and enhancing the technology swiftly to keep in front of the competition. By Paula Rooney Dec 01, 2023 6 mins Generative AI Digital Transformation Cloud Computing Podcasts Videos Resources Events SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER From our editors straight to your inbox Get started by entering your email address below. Please enter a valid email address Subscribe