Fisher & Paykel Healthcare appoints new VP for ICT

One of the biggest ICT leadership roles in New Zealand has been filled.

Nicholas Fourie is now the vice president – information communication technology at Fisher Paykel Healthcare, taking on the role held by Winston Fong.

Fong is now Vice President – Surgical Technologies at Fisher Paykel Healthcare, a newly-created role.

F P Healthcare is a leading designer, manufacturer and marketer of products and systems for use in respiratory care, acute care, surgery and the treatment of obstructive sleep apnea.

Fourie has been with F P Healthcare for nearly 10 years. He has held various systems engineering and IT management roles, including his most recent position as ICT Manager – Development Engineering.

Before this, Fourie worked for the South African division of BHP Billiton. He holds a Diploma in Computer Engineering from Damelin School of Information Technology in South Africa, and is currently studying towards a Postgraduate Diploma in Business at the University of Auckland.

Fourie is also a deputy member of the CIO Executive Council, a community comprised of 750+ enterprises and over 1,400 CIOs and Senior ICT executives representing all industries and sizes across 18 geographies including 45+ members in Australia and New Zealand.

“A strategic people focus is developing capability within the team that is not purely traditional IT, but is fully capable of conversing and innovating with all parts of the business,” says Fourie, of the role.

The goal, he says, is to be seen as “trusted advisors and partners that are focused on true business value and relationships”.

Fong, on the other hand, joined FP Healthcare as an intern, while completing his Bachelor of Engineering (Electronics and Computer Engineering) at the Manukau Institute of Technology.

Over the following 17 years he has progressed through roles across technology and business management- starting as a Software Developer, to ICT Development Manager, to Group ICT Manager, until nearly six years ago, when he was appointed to Vice President ICT.

Fong’s work at Fisher Paykel Healthcare won the Digital Transformation Category at the inaugural CIO100 award. He was cited for the Informatics – Patient Management project that enabled the organisation evolve to become a digital business and use digital platforms to transform the organisation.

In an interview with CIO New Zealand, Fong explained the VP ICT role is a global senior leadership role, based in New Zealand and reporting to the CEO.

FP Healthcare is based in 36 countries and sell into 120, with ICT supporting over 3500 employees across 20 physical sites around the world.

The VP of ICT manages more than 100 team members across areas including ERP, Data and Analytics/Business Intelligence, Service Management, Operations, Infrastructure, Cloud, Cyber Security, Enterprise Architecture, Project Services, Software Development and Integrations, Systems Development and Digital Services.

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