I am genuinely excited to have been nominated by the National Board as CIOCAN’s incoming President and Chairperson, and grateful for the confidence that represents.

When I joined the CIO Association of Canada seven years ago, I came looking for what most of us are looking for: a community where I could speak plainly about the hardest parts of this job, with people who had already been there. I found it. That community — honest, member-led and free of a sales agenda — is what CIOCAN is, and protecting it is the first duty of anyone who leads this Association.

I take on this role as a working CIO. I sit in the same seat our members do, with the same board expectations, the same security posture to defend and the same questions about what artificial intelligence is about to do to all of it. That is deliberate. This Association is at its best when it is led by people who are currently living the problems it exists to solve.

We are in a strong position. Our membership has grown to almost 700 members nationwide in two years. Our professional designation, the CIO.D, is establishing itself as the standard of the profession, and a second designation — the CDSO.D, developed with the University of Ottawa and Treasury Board Secretariat — is on its way. Our leadership programs with the Rotman School of Management and our long-standing partnership with Simon Fraser University are building the next generation of Canadian technology leaders. Our nine chapters, from Vancouver to Atlantic Canada, and one national CISO Division, gives this Association genuinely national reach, with each chapter serving as a community of its own, with our job at the national level, to foster this.

My priorities are straightforward. Make membership valuable for everyone. Make our credentials count. Put CIOCAN’s programs and its voice squarely behind the AI transition, so that our members navigate it here, among peers and fellow mentors. We will fund the mission through durable, multi-year partnerships, so that our programming, data sharing and learning is purpose built and of the utmost value to our members.

What we own that no one can replicate is trust. We are member-led and vendor-neutral, and in a market crowded with sales narratives, that is the most valuable thing we have.

If you are a senior Canadian technology leader and not yet part of this community, join us. If you are already a member, get involved — the value of this Association compounds with participation. I am looking forward to representing you all as strong technology leaders in your community.