Meet the APAC Finalists – Most Disruptive CIO/CTO

Our esteemed panel of judges headed up by Sir Richard Branson and Steve Wozniak had the tough job of deciding which technology leaders would go on to become Finalists for our APAC Regional Final’s Event to be held in Melbourne on the 21st of July 2016.

Our CIO/CTO category recognises technology chiefs that have achieved amazing results through a disruptive or transformational approach to a firm’s technology strategy or environment. To qualify for this category they must be in a senior technology leadership position in the region and have made significant transformational impact their role.

Congratulations to our APAC Finalists in this category below:

Most Disruptive CIO/ CTO

Neal Cross

Neal leads the DBS Innovation Group, a team of influencers that fosters the spirit of innovation throughout the bank. He drives the bank’s innovation agenda across its key axes of growth, namely, Greater China, Southeast Asia and South Asia. Working with internal stakeholders and external collaborators, Neal charts a next-phase innovation roadmap for DBS to enhance customer experience and better engage the bank’s customers in the digital landscape. His vision being to turn the bank into a Fintech company by embedding the digital mind-set of a start-up across the entire banking group. In his spare time Neal has built a social enterprise hotel in the Sumatran jungle to help save the critically endangered Sumatran Orangutan and to give local villagers jobs and education.

Peter O’Halloran

Since joining the NBA in 2008 and being appointed its inaugural CIO in early 2009, Peter has used technology and the opportunities it presents, to transform the focus and operations of the NBA, and through it, the Australian blood sector. Through the establishment of close relationships with key influencers across the clinical and scientific community and the development and national implementation of three key systems (BloodNet, ABDR/MyABDR and BloodSTAR), Peter has transformed the sector by delivering systems that are quick, on-time, on-budget, that users love and deliver lasting change – reducing demand for blood donors, delivering improved patient outcomes and saving tens of millions of dollars.

William Daniel Confalonieri

William was appointed the first Deakin University’s CIO in January 2012, and was later promoted to Chief Digital Officer and Vice-President, retaining the CIO role, with an ambitious business transformational agenda. William profoundly believes that rather than only implementing foundational enterprise platforms, the CIOs must focus primarily on orchestrating complex digital ecosystems to deliver premium experiences to customers. The CIO must help the business reinvent itself to serve the “connected” generation of customers, which requires being a decisive innovator with a clear vision of how technology will transform businesses and the organizational muscle to make it happen. William was awarded Australian Chief Information Officer of the Year by IT News Magazine in February 2014 and was a finalist in 2015.