CSC's Aussie CIO to tackle customers

Services giant Computer Sciences Corporation's (CSC) Australian chief information officer, Emily Richmond-Jones, has stepped down to take a top job in the company's service delivery arm.

Richmond-Jones had served as CIO of CSC's Australian operations for some five years, a statement from the vendor issued this morning said. She has now been appointed director of service delivery for CSC's Western Australian operations.

CSC claims to have more than 700 employees in the state.

Richmond-Jones will be replaced by Stephen Kowal, previously the CIO of Western Mining Corporation, which is now part of fellow miner BHP Billiton.

According to CSC's statement, Kowal led the IT integration of the two companies.

"Before that, he was CIO of BHP Billiton Base Metals, global IT outsourcing manager at BHP Billiton, and held various roles at Cable & Wireless Optus and the federal Department of Defence," the statement added.

In an interview with ZDNet Australia in August, Richmond-Jones nominated security and the need for strategic planning as the IT challenges keeping her awake at night.

She also warned her fellow CIOs from favouring certain technologies they were personally interested in, saying: "Listen to the business, learn the industry and always keep in mind what is best for the business, despite technologies that interest you as a CIO."

Recent internal IT projects within CSC's Australian operations have included a major VoIP deployment at the company's new state of the art headquarters in North Ryde, Sydney, as well as in other locations. A migration from Oracle to SAP has also been going on, and a new invoice management system being watched by CSC's global business.