Award Recognizing the ITAC CanadianCIO of the Year

OTTAWA, July 24, 2014 /CNW/ - ITAC (the Information Technology Association of Canada), and CanadianCIO published by ITWC (IT World Canada), are pleased to announce the creation of a new award recognizing overall excellence among Canada's community of Chief Information Officers. The ITAC CanadianCIO of the Year Award will be presented to an outstanding CIO demonstrating the qualities of business and technological vision, entrepreneurship, a capacity to drive enterprise transformation and a measurable operational strength that delivers shareholder or stakeholder value. CIOs serving Canadian organizations and demonstrating these qualities in either the private sector, public sector or not-for-profit sectors are eligible for nomination. The award will be presented at ITAC's Ingenious Awards Gala on November 12, 2014 in Toronto.

"CIOs frequently accomplish amazing things. But because technology is arcane for many business people, their achievements aren't particularly well understood or properly celebrated," said Karna Gupta, President and CEO of ITAC. "They function in modern, successful organizations delivering unheard of solutions for everything from talent management to customer service to billing integrity through the wise application of technology. This award is the ICT industry's way of giving distinguished CIOs the recognition they so richly deserve, and creating a showcase for the achievements of Canada's most distinguished CIOs. By celebrating excellence in their field, we believe we can underscore the increasing importance of CIOs, and technology, in all organizations."

Anyone can nominate a CIO for this award. Information about eligibility and criteria can be found on the ITAC website. A panel of judges composed of distinguished CEOs and CIOs will adjudicate from the field of nominees. Their assessment will consider the nominees' measurable achievements, initiative, creativity, capacity for collaboration and overall impact on the organization served.

Fawn Annan, President & Group Publisher of IT World Canada (ITWC) comments, "Nothing is more important than community recognition from your peers. The role of CIO is one of leadership but also one of courage. CanadianCIO tells such stories and we are proud to partner with ITAC on this very important award."

Nominations for the ITAC Canadian CIO of the Year are open now and will close August 31, 2014. For more information and to access the nomination form, go to: http://itac.ca/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/CIO-of-the-Year-Overview.pdf

About ITAC:

The Information Technology Association of Canada (ITAC) is the voice of the Canadian information and communications technologies (ICT) industry. ITAC represents a diverse ICT community spanning telecommunications and internet services, ICT consulting services, hardware, microelectronics, software and electronic content. ITAC's community of companies accounts for more than 70 per cent of the 572,700 jobs, $155.3 billion in revenue, $6.2 billion in R&D investment, $30.4 billion in exports and $11billion in capital expenditures that the ICT industry contributes annually to the Canadian economy. The ICT sector currently represents 4.9 per cent of Canada's gross domestic product (GDP) and accounted for 9.4 per cent of all real GDP growth since 2002. ITAC is a prominent advocate for the expansion of Canada's innovative capacity and for stronger productivity across all sectors through the strategic use of technology.

SOURCE: Information Technology Association of Canada

For further information: Lynda Leonard, Senior Vice President, ITAC, [phone] ext. 2223