Richard Constantine nabs CIO of the year award

Flinders University’s CIO professor Richard Constantine won the CIO of the Year award at the 2014 iAwards dinner in Melbourne last Friday night.

Professor Constantine led an 18 month ICT transformation project at the university – dubbed ‘Connecting Flinders’ – to roll out high performance wireless connections, video conferencing, an advanced online teaching and research capability, and strong social media collaboration.

Flinders’ vice chancellor, professor Michael Barber, said Constantine has a unique insight into the capability of existing technologies and their applicability to higher education.

“In his strategic application of these technologies, professor Constantine has not only produced a system that is very attractive to, and meets the needs of, students, staff, and researchers but has also delivered an effective, integrated ICT solution for the university,” he said.

Professor Constantine said the Connecting Flinders project has laid the foundation for solutions that will enable the next generation of teaching, learning and research on and off campus.

“We want to ensure, for example, that all our students, regardless of physical presence, will have an excellent learning and service experience,” said Constantine.

“Today’s ICT professional has to get out of the back room, understand all areas of the business they operate in and work tirelessly looking for opportunities to enhance their teams’ value proposition.

“Because ICT operates across all parts of an organisation, ICT professionals are well placed to provide comprehensive transformation to enhance an organisation’s effectiveness and efficiency. It’s time to step up,” he said.

The iAwards dinner was co-hosted by the Australian Computer Society, the Australian Information Industry Association, and the Pearcey Foundation.

This is the first time a university CIO has won the award. In the past, it has been awarded to CIOs at large public companies and governments.

Meanwhile, Fi Slaven, general manager at William Buck Victoria won ICT Woman of the Year. Fi supports women in IT as secretary of Vic ICT for Women and director of Vic ICT’s Go Girl Go for IT program.

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Follow Byron Connolly on Twitter:@ByronConnolly