Introducing IDC’s
CIO Excellence Awards
Recognizing the Region’s Most Innovative & Forward-Thinking CIOs
IDC Announces Winners of Inaugural CIO Excellence Awards Thursday, February 22, 2018
Dubai – With more than 300 of the region’s most influential ICT leaders in attendance, the IDC Middle East CIO Summit 2018 closed last week with a ceremony to mark the inaugural IDC CIO Excellence Awards and recognize the efforts of those individuals and organizations that have excelled in conceptualizing and delivering game-changing digital transformation initiatives in the region. “Progressive CIOs across the region are increasingly leveraging digital technologies to transform their customer-engagement strategies, business operations, and operating models in order to compete and thrive in the new digital economy,” says Jyoti Lalchandani, IDC’s group vice president and regional managing director for the Middle East, Turkey, and Africa. “And with annual spending on digital transformation initiatives in the Middle East and Africa set to top $23 billion this year, we are delighted to recognize the considerable efforts of region’s most successful and innovative digital trailblazers.”
Best Customer Experience Transformation Winner: Dubai Municipality (UAE)
Finalists: Commercial Bank of Dubai (UAE) | RAKBANK (UAE) | Dubai Silicon Oasis Authority (UAE)
Best Business Operations Transformation Winner: Ministry of Health & Prevention (UAE)
IDC had been accepting nominations across 5 categories since November, and received a total of 131 submissions from 85 different organizations. These submissions were whittled down to a shortlist that saw senior IDC analysts conduct more than 50 interviews as part of the judging process. IDC’s newly formed CIO Advisory Council for the Gulf region then reviewed the nominations, with the winners and finalists in each category outlined below:
CIO of the Year Winner: Mr. Nitin Bhargava, Mashreq Bank (UAE)
Finalists: Tristar Group (UAE) | eXtra (Saudi Arabia)
Best Information Transformation Winner: Ministry of Health (Oman)
Finalists: Younis Othman, Dubai Customs (UAE) | Dimitris Mavroyiannis, Commercial Bank of Dubai (UAE) | Ahmed Albalooshi, Al Baraka Banking Group (Bahrain) | Ali Nimer, Miral (UAE) | Ajay Rathi, Meraas (UAE)
Finalists: Miral | Abu Dhabi Judicial Department (UAE)
Best IT Service Transformation Winner: Arabian Centres Company (Saudi Arabia)
Finalists: AW Rostamani (UAE) | Ministry of Economy (UAE) CIO of the Year, Mr. Nitin Bhargava, was delighted to receive the award and thanked IDC for “the wonderful recognition and appreciation.” IDC would like to thank the esteemed CIO Advisory Council members for being part of the judging process:
IDC’s valued partners for the Middle East CIO Summit 2018 included Kuwait’s Central Agency for Information Technology (CAIT), Oman’s IT Authority; and eOman as Strategic Partners; IBM as Summit Partner; NXN as Platinum Partner; Commvault, Fortinet, FireEye, Tenable, Western Digital, Mimecast, Fujitsu, HP Enterprise, Alpha Data, NetApp, Attivo Networks, Veeam, Check Point, Alibaba Cloud, Sage, SmarTek21, S&V MENA, SOTI, Kodak Alaris / RSTN, Hitachi, Canon, and Citrix as Focus Group Partners; Tata Communications, Mindtree, and Injazat Data Systems as UAE Focus Partners; Malwarebytes, Zimperium, Freshworks, Syncsort Vision Solutions, Nexthink, Gigamon, MDS ap, and Bitdefender as Exhibit Partners; YAS Digital Media and Vive as Innovation Partners; and Eye of Riyadh as the event’s official Media Partner.
H.E. Wesam Lootah CEO, Smart Dubai Government Establishment Fuad Al Ansari Vice President of IT, ADNOC Refining Yahya Abdulrahman Executive Director of IT & Communications, Saudi Electricity Company Ahmad Almulla Executive Vice President of Corporate Services, Emirates Global Aluminum Dr. Salim Al Ruzaiqi CEO, Information Technology Authority, Oman Robert Teagle Group CIO, Americana Group
For more information about the IDC Middle East CIO Summit 2018, please visit www.idcmesummit2018.com Or contact Sheila Manek:
[email protected] | +971 4 446 3154. You can also search for news or tweet about the Summit using the hashtag #IDCMECIO.