The Georgia CIO Leadership Association (GeorgiaCIO) announced the winners of its 2019 CIO of the Year® ORBIE® Awards. GeorgiaCIO recognized chief information officers in seven key categories – Lifetime Achievement, Super Global, Global, Large Enterprise, Enterprise, Corporate and Nonprofit/Public Sector. The Awards were presented at the Georgia CIO of the Year Awards at the Cobb Galleria.

“The GeorgiaCIO ORBIE winners prove the value of great leadership - the x-factor that converts technology into business results,” according to Tamara Lopata, Executive Director of GeorgiaCIO. “These awards are meaningful because they are judged by peers. CIOs who understand how difficult this job is and why great leadership matters.”

The 2019 Georgia CIO of the Year ORBIE Award winners are:

›› Ed Steinike posthumously received the Lifetime Achievement CIO of the Year ORBIE.

›› Laura Miller, Global CIO, IHG, received the Super Global ORBIE for organizations over $10 billion annual revenue & multi-national.

›› Shirl Stroeing, SVP & CIO, Paradies Lagardère, received the Global ORBIE for organizations over $1 billion annual revenue & multi-national.

›› Neil Brinson, CTO, Core & Main, received the Large Enterprise ORBIE for organizations over $1 billion annual revenue.

›› Bernard Gay, CIO, nThrive, received the Enterprise ORBIE for organizations over $400 million annual revenue.

›› Wesley Richard, SVP, Innovations & Operations, CLC, received the Corporate ORBIE for organizations up to $400 million annual revenue.

›› Steven Ferguson, CIO, Technical College System of Georgia, received the Nonprofit/Public Sector ORBIE for government, healthcare, education & not-for-profit organizations.

The CIO of the Year ORBIE Awards is the premier technology executive recognition program in the United States. Since inception in 1998, over 800 CIOs have been honored as finalists and over 200 CIO of the Year winners have received the prestigious ORBIE Award. The ORBIE honors chief information officers who have demonstrated excellence in technology leadership. Finalists and winners are selected by an independent peer review process, led by prior ORBIE recipients, based upon:

›› Leadership and management effectiveness

›› Business value created by technology innovation

›› Size and scope of responsibilities

›› Engagement in industry and community endeavors

The CIO Awards ceremony was keynoted by James Dallas, two-time Fortune 500 CIO. Nearly 1,100 guests attended, representing leading Georgia organizations and their technology partners.

The 2019 Georgia CIO of the Year Awards was made possible by the following sponsors:

›› Underwriters: Intellinet, Red Hat & Cumberland

›› Gold sponsors: Veristor, Data Blue, VMware, Insight, Splunk & Rural Sourcing

›› Silver sponsors: Zerto, Neudesic, Pure Storage, Citrix, Workday, Appian, Comcast Business, Flexential, TIBCO, Ui Path, CSI Leasing, RingCentral, Driven Technologies, Micro Focus/ Whitlock, Vigilant Technologies, Deloitte & Red Pill Now

›› Bronze sponsors: NTT Data, Layer3, iVision, Pyramid Consulting, CenturyLink, QTS, OnePath, Light Networks, Anaplan, Box, 7Factor Software, Primus Software, SHI, Tech Mahindra, Leapfrog, MorganFranklin Consulting, Jabian, Accenture, CGI, ETS Solutions, Capgemini, Zoom & Between Pixels

›› National partner: Year Up

›› Media partner: The Atlanta Business Chronicle