Each year, the Georgia CIO of the Year Awards program honors Georgia-based CIOs who have demonstrated excellence in leading their technology organizations. For the second year, The Enterprisers Project has had the privilege of attending this prestigious ceremony, which draws more CIOs than any other technology event in Georgia.
“Not only do we recognize Georgia’s top CIOs who have demonstrated excellence in technology leadership,” said GeorgiaCIO executive director Lisa LaRoque, “we highlight their untold stories of how they are shaping their industries and changing the world through technological innovation and strategic leadership.”
Georgia CIO Leadership Association (GeorgiaCIO) launched its awards program in 1998, and each year it recognizes the work of CIOs in four categories – Global, Enterprise, Corporate, and Nonprofit – as well as a Lifetime Achievement Award. This year, over 140 CIOs were nominated, and each nominee was judged via a highly competitive and rigorous process conducted by an independent panel of industry experts and past winners.
To be considered for the award, CIOs are evaluated against very specific criteria including innovation, leadership and management effectiveness, business value creation, and community involvement, both inside and outside of their organization. To win is a significant professional distinction.
The winners were announced in November at the organization’s sold-out awards event in Atlanta, where nearly 1,000 IT professionals representing more than 300 companies gathered to honor the winners.
Meet the winners
The Enterprisers Project recently had the opportunity to interview the 2016 winners. We learned more about the achievements that led to their award win, the challenges they had to overcome, and their advice for other CIOs.
During the next two weeks, we will be showcasing the 2016 winners in a series of interviews. You’ll hear from:
Lifetime Achievement Award: Fran Dramis, BellSouth (formerly)
Global CIO of the Year: Jean Holley, Brambles Limited
Enterprise CIO of the Year: Brad Cowles, HD Supply
Corporate CIO of the Year: Muthu Arumugham, Ebix
Nonprofit CIO of the Year: Sarah Ming Hsi, MARTA
We're kicking off the series today with our interview with Lifetime Achievement Award winner Fran Dramis.
Nominations for the 2017 Georgia CIO Awards open Feb. 3. Anyone can nominate a Georgia-based technology executive. Learn more about the requirements on GeorgiaCIO.org, and mark your calendars so you can nominate a CIO peer, colleague, or top customer while supporting Georgia’s growing technology community.
