Education ministry gets new CIO

The Ministry of Education has appointed Stuart Wakefield as its chief information officer.

Wakefield takes up the role in March, having come from a role as director of Government ICT Strategy and Planning at Internal Affairs.

“This is a significant appointment and we’re really pleased to have found someone of Stuart’s strategic and operational ability who can make a major contribution to the Ministry and the wider education sector,” says Kristine Kilkelly, deputy secretary for corporate and governance.

“He has an impressive background, including leading a number of significant strategic work programs.”

Kilkelly says Wakefield’s experience includes time as the CIO at Capital Coast District Health Board, and senior IT roles at NZ Post, Meridian Energy, and the Electricity Corporation of New Zealand. He has also runs his own consulting company, providing strategic IT advisory services to a number of public sector agencies.

She says significant programs he has led include the review of the business model and structural operations for the shared ICT subsidiary of the Capital Coast and Taranaki District Health Board;

He played a key role in the development of the NZ Government Cloud Programme and the 2013 All of Government ICT Strategy Action Plan and the development of the GCIO ICT Assurance Framework.

As well as looking after the Ministry’s information technology needs, the Ministry’s IT group provides IT systems that support schools in running assessment, enrolment and student management. It also provides the IT capability to run the Ministry’s central funding engine for schools, which delivers operational grants.