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IT Personality, Visionary CIO named

Admire Moyo
By Admire Moyo, ITWeb's news editor.
Johannesburg, 09 Nov 2010

Mark Levy, joint-CEO of Blue Label Telecoms, is the IT Personality of the Year 2010, and Patrick Monyeki, director on the De Beers Group Services Board, is this year's Visionary CIO.

The two were honoured at the Computer Society of SA (CSSA) President's Awards Breakfast at the Wanderers Club in Illovo this morning.

Celebrating its 32nd anniversary this year, the IT Personality Award is presented by the CSSA, together with ITWeb, the Gordon Institute of Business Science and Gartner Africa.

The award recognises a person who has made an exceptional contribution to the local ICT industry in the past year.

With a tight line-up of top IT personalities in SA, Levy shrugged off competition from Brett Dawson, CEO of Dimension Data; Arthur Goldstuck, World Wide Worx MD; Zibusiso Mkhwanazi, head of KrazyBoyz Digital; and Jene Palmer, CEO of Spescom.

Levy, together with his brother Brett, has built a thriving business based on the philosophy of taking products to the people instead of relying on customers coming to them.

Blue Label Telecoms has built a new prepaid market by making secure tokens available electronically, letting people buy airtime, electricity, gift vouchers and pay a variety of utilities from almost anywhere. “You can pay your telephone bill in a shabeen. Who would have thought it possible?”

“Why should a guy who only earns R1 000 not have the same privileges as someone who earns more? It's expensive to be poor and we need to find a way to cheapen it,” says Levy.

Visionary leadership

The Visionary CIO Award recognises an executive responsible for IT strategy in an organisation who has demonstrated visionary leadership in using technology to grow business. It was introduced in 2008 and is presented by ITWeb and the CSSA.

For this accolade, Monyeki saw off competition from Rael Lissoos, founder of Dabba; Julius Segole, CIO of the Department of Social Development; and Liam Terblanche, technical director and CIO of Accsys.

Monyeki has been at De Beers since 2002 - first as CTO, and then as CIO. His appointment to the group's services board in 2009 was acknowledgement of the IT strategies he contributed to the business. He established a single global network for the group, which operates on every continent in the world. “We needed to get every single office to operate and communicate seamlessly within the same network,” he says.

Monyeki believes the role of the CIO is to be a change agent; to bring into business both technical expertise and understanding of the business. “The CIO never stops learning, as the business keeps changing all the time.”

Last year, the IT Personality of the Year title was bestowed on Ivan Epstein, CEO of Softline, while the Visionary CIO Award went to Carl Louw, then head of the Internet Channel at Absa Bank.

Related story:
IT Personality, Visionary finalist named

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