Rio Tinto moves its global CIO role to Australia

Rio Tinto is set to relocate its global chief information officer role to be based out of Brisbane instead of Singapore.

The company this week began public advertising for the CIO role to “scale and mature the technology organisation, retire legacy systems and driving focused, forward-thinking technology leadership across the company.”

The role had been held by Singapore-based Simon Benney, but iTnews has confirmed with Rio Tinto that Benney left “earlier this year”.

Benney’s planned replacement will sit in Australia but continue to maintain oversight of an information services and technology (IS&T) team and operation that is spread globally.

The CIO will also continue to report to the group executive of growth and innovation (G&I), Stephen McIntosh.

“The CIO’s team includes the whole breadth of the function, including information security, digital, core global systems, three functional hubs in Perth, Brisbane and Montreal, infrastructure and portfolio management,” Rio Tinto said in the job advertisement.

Aside from transformation experience, the company is hoping to find a new CIO with “experience transitioning legacy infrastructure and applications onto new platforms e.g. cloud, agile, DevOps”.

Earlier this month, Rio Tinto unveiled the next major technology-driven ambition for the business: to create "intelligent" mines where all assets are networked together and capable of making decisions in microseconds.

The project appears to be a likely successor to its pioneering -but now decade old - ‘Mine of the Future’ program, which spurred almost every large miner to automate equipment like trucks and drills and operate them remotely.