NBN Co's CIO steps down

Claire Rawlins has stepped down from her position as chief information officer of NBN Co after leading its greenfield IT organisation for almost three years.

Rawlins became NBN Co’s first CIO in November 2009, just three months after the company was established to build and operate Australia’s National Broadband Network.

She initially reported to head of corporate services, Kevin Brown, and then chief operating officer Ralph Steffens, with responsibility for IT strategy architecture, delivery and support of the company’s IT systems and applications.

Steffens announced Rawlins’ resignation in an internal email sighted by iTnews this week.

"Claire has spearheaded the design, build and implementation of our end-to-end business processes," he wrote.

"Under Claire's leadership, the IT team has achieved an impressive delivery record in the industry."

Rawlins led NBN Co’s ‘buy over build’ approach to IT, under which it designed business processes around leading technology products when possible.

In an interview with iTnews last May, she expressed a preference for locally hosted software-as-a-service, with the company consuming hosted Atlassian and Oracle CRM products.

NBN Co also used Oracle project management, ERP and database software. Rawlins was named Oracle’s 2011 Asia Pacific CIO of the year for “creating an environment where people can accomplish and deliver outstanding business outcomes”.

Rawlins was formerly a technology executive at British Telecom, financial services firm Fidelity, former US telco Qwest and former British investment bank Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein.

She also acted as a technology transformation advisor to AAPT for seven months in 2009, immediately prior to joining NBN Co.

An NBN Co spokeswoman confirmed that Rawlins had "decided to leave NBN Co to pursue other opportunities".

"We wish her all the best in her future endeavours," the spokeswoman said. "We have commenced a search to find a replacement."