Govt CIO joins geospatial research board

Government CIO Colin MacDonald has added yet another string to his bow; he has joined the board of directors of the Cooperative Research Centre for Spatial Information, an Australia/NZ government, industry and research joint venture in spatial technologies.

The CRCSI sees such technologies making a significant contribution to the economies of Australia and New Zealand. One of its members is Land Information New Zealand (LINZ), where MacDonald was chief executive before taking up his present position as GCIO and chief executive of the Department of Internal Affairs.

“Colin brings deep expertise in IT management and corporate strategy. He will also strengthen the very important relationship between Australia and New Zealand” says Mary O’Kane, the CRCSI board chair. “He has a great understanding of the spatial information industry within which we work.”

MacDonald has 30 years of experience in IT and general management in New Zealand and the UK. He was previously deputy commissioner, business development and systems at Inland Revenue and chief operating officer for the ANZ Banking Group (NZ).

CRCSI was founded in Australia in 2003 and its New Zealand arm began in 2010. One of its programmes of work is “end-user capacity building”, which came to the fore in the past few weeks with an effort by the Spatial Industries Business Association’s NZ arm to help immigrants skilled in spatial technology enter New Zealand.