ASIC appoints new CIO

Australia’s corporate regulator ASIC has appointed Joanne Harper as its permanent chief information officer.

Joanne Harper

Harper has been acting in the role since former CIO Wendy Bryant departed for the Australian Taxation Office in February after more than five-year stint at the agency.

She has also held the roles of senior IT assurance manager and program director during her four-year tenure at ASIC. Her appointment was first reported by Computerworld.

The agency began looking for a new CIO in March to tackle the daunting task of pulling apart and updating the IT infrastructure behind the agency’s registry. 

But since then the federal government has flagged using the opportunity to create a single whole-of-government business database.

The agency is one of five currently looking at bringing together as many as 31 registers, including the companies register and the business names register, to improve the user experience.

It is part of the 'national business simplification initiative' announced last November, which has already begun to simplify interactions with state jurisdictions.

Harper takes charge of the agency as its new funding model kicks in, which will see the nation's banks pay it directly for its regulatory services.