The NSW Department of Premier and Cabinet (DPC) has appointed Emily Morgan as its CIO on a six-month contract to facilitate and run a project across its IT infrastructure.
Morgan commenced in the role on the 9 January and will set about creating an internal IT function for the department which may ultimately lead to the creation of a permanent CIO role, a position the DPC has never had in place.
“Should we decide that a CIO role is appropriate for DPC then that position would be advertised and the normal selection process would take place,” Morgan said.
Morgan will be reporting the DPC’s newly appointed executive director of corporate services, John Clark, when he will commence the role on 30 January.
Morgan had previously spent three years working for the Sydney Opera House where she held the interim CIO role until March 2011, before taking on a four-month maternity position as the director of marketing communications and customer service.
According to Morgan, the role has been a highlight in her career as she took on a department with hundreds of staff without having expertise in the area and had to rely solely on leadership and managerial skills.
“While the role of CIO and CMO [chief marketing officer] often can clash, I think it has really reinforced the need to understand the business that you’re supporting and enabling with technology,” she said.
“Sitting in that CMO chair I found it was often quite difficult and so I think it gave me a better appreciation of the pressures the marketing department work under.”
Morgan was also the CIO for CSC Australia for six years following her work to launch a technical architecture practice. She also worked at JP Morgan in New York.
Following the six-month contract, and should she not take on the potential permanent CIO role, Morgan plans to continue to expand her managerial skillset and branch out from the CIO space.
“The CIO role is always fascinating but ultimately I think I’m on a path to COO type roles with any luck.”
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