ITAC CanadianCIO of the Year Award Honors Lydia Lee and Eugene Roman

TORONTO, Nov. 18, 2015 /CNW/ - The Information Technology Association of Canada (ITAC) along with its partners CanadianCIO Magazine and the CIO Association of Canada presented the ITAC CanadianCIO of the Year Award to Lydia Lee, Chief Information Officer and Senior Vice President at University Health Network and Eugene Roman, Chief Technology Officer, Canadian Tire Corporation at the 2015 Ingenious Awards held November 17, 2015.

Excellence in the use of information and communications technology is frequently driven by inspired and committed Chief Information Officers. This award is presented to two outstanding CIOs 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 in the public and private sectors.

"CIO's do extraordinary work that drives innovation and support the bottom line, but they rarely find their way into the spotlight," says Karna Gupta, President the CEO of the Information Technology Association of Canada (ITAC). "The two winners in this inaugural competition have earned the respect of their colleagues and the industry."

Public Sector Winner:

Lydia Lee, Senior Vice President & Chief Information Officer with the University Health Network, exemplifies the successful building of a powerful personal network within the hospital, the broader health environment and the IT industry itself. She has been able to align multiple objectives to successfully implement new solutions to help to keep UHN at the forefront of patient care. Lydia is leading major clinical integration initiatives that deploy IT to improve patient and healthcare provider experiences. The list of initiatives she has led includes:  

• the introduction of the My UHN Patient Portal that allows patients and their families to access information about all aspects of patient care
• a multi-year collaborative engagement with Rogers Communication to strengthen UHN's wireless infrastructure and develop new applications for the UHN community
• a multipartite partnership to develop a diabetes self-management mobile application
• a project to deliver a referral management and resource matching solutions to support coordination of patient care
• the GTA West Diagnostic Imaging Repository and an innovative documentation tool for UHN's Bariatric patients.

As a vigorous advocate for e-Health, her impact transcends UHN, stretching across Ontario and the whole country. 

Private Sector Winner:

Eugene Roman, Senior Vice President, Information Technology and Chief Technology Officer with Canadian Tire has brought his unique background in business and cyber-security to work with the senior executive team at Canadian Tire to define the future of the enterprise. Eugene provides the underlying translation of the enterprise business plan into executable, predictable and cost-effective technology support. Very quickly after joining the company in 2012, Eugene transformed CTC's legacy systems while overseeing the creation of a dynamic new IT team. He created a new strategic plan to transform CTC into an innovator in digital retailing. Since then he has overseen the development of three digital centres, including the Cloud Nine Digital Innovation Centre in Winnipeg, which was an Ingenious Award finalist, and the Digital Garage in Kitchener, Waterloo. The technology under development in these centres is turbo charging online customer interactions and forging stronger relations with Canadian Tire's customers.

The fruits of this development have rolled out quickly and are on display at the company's Sport Check West Edmonton Mall flagship store and at the Canadian Tire Showcase store where customers enjoy a uniquely digital and personalized shopping experience that gives a clear view of what 21st century shopping will look like.

Fawn Annan, President and Group Publisher of CanadianCIO shared her thoughts; "These two Awards embody significant achievements by the inaugural inductees, allowing all partners (ITAC, CIOCAN & ITWC) of the Ingenious Program alongside the full complement of the ICT industry to celebrate Canadian innovation enabled by technology."

Launched in 2011, the Ingenious Awards program invites nominations from across Canada's ICT industry, as well as from organizations in the six categories that have realized significant results through the innovative use of ICT. In 2014, the ITAC CanadianCIO of the Year award was added to the Ingenious Award program to profile leadership within the ICT community.

About ITAC

The Information Technology Association of Canada (ITAC) is the voice of the Canadian information and communications technologies (ICT) industry championing the development of a robust and sustainable digital economy in Canada. A vital connection between business and government, we provide our members with the advocacy, networking and professional development services that help them to thrive nationally and compete globally.

SOURCE Information Technology Association of Canada

Christine Leonard, Director, Communications, [phone], Ext1-2232, [phone], [email protected]