The Chief Information Officer (CIO) at City University of Hong Kong (CityU) has been named a Top CIO in Greater China.

Dr Andy Chun Hon-wai was rewarded at the 9th China Top CIO Award 2010 for his utilisation of information technology to advance CityU’s development.

He was a winner of both the Top 5 Distinguished CIO Award, the only winner from Hong Kong in this category, and the Top 50 CIO Award. The rigorous 10-month selection process involved a panel of over 20 renowned industry experts and representatives from IT professional associations in mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan.

Dr Chun’s success exemplifies his leadership skills. Under his management, CityU has expanded in several strategic directions, using social media to improve the University’s online presence and communications, leveraging cloud computing for enterprise agility and enhanced collaboration, and modernising the University's e-learning environment with mobile and social learning.

“The CIO award is really an honour and recognition for CityU as a whole,” Dr Chun said. “It is a confirmation of CityU’s leadership in leveraging technology to achieve the University’s mission. Our achievements would not have been possible without the strong support and forward-looking vision of the University management and the dedication of our central and departmental IT teams.”

He added that under CityU’s Strategic Plan and the new Discover & Innovate theme, IT plays an ever more important role in providing a technology-enriched environment for learning and research. “Advances in IT enable transformational changes that allow CityU to take full advantage of the opportunities offered by the new 334 academic reform as well as to provide an environment that truly fosters discovery and innovation,” he said.

Mr Xu Yu, Director of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology’s Department of Informatisation Promotion, congratulated the winning CIOs, encouraging them to complete the historical task of combining informationisation with industrialisation to achieve full benefits for enterprises.

Dr Chun is an international expert on artificial intelligence for optimisation, scheduling, rostering, timetabling and data-mining, for which he has won numerous international awards. Besides his contributions to CityU, Dr Chun has helped many organisations and government agencies in Hong Kong to leverage technology to deliver products and services that are better, faster and more cost effective. Through his work he has brought about measurable benefits to society and citizens of Hong Kong.

Organised by CEO & CIO China magazine and co-sponsored by the International Data Corporation, the award commands a great deal of authority within the IT industry in Greater China. The theme for the 2010 award was “From Business Optimisation to Social Change.” About 400 nominations were received. The recipients of this year’s Top 5 Distinguished CIO Award included CIOs and senior executives from a range of industries including higher education, banking, telecommunication, real estate and transportation.