Tennis Australia CIO quits

Tennis Australia's chief information officer Samir Mahir has departed the organisation following a four-year career to chase new opportunities.

Samir Mahir

Mahir farewelled the local tennis governing body late last month. He had joined the organisation in 2011 after being poached from an 11-year career at IBM where he worked on sports events projects across tennis and golf, as well as the Broadway theatre Tony Awards.

Prior to that he worked as the IT director for the US Tennis Association.

During his four years at Tennis Australia, Mahir established a project management office, set up cloud-based disaster recovery, delivered a new CRM and implemented IPTV, among other things.

More recently he worked with the organisation's technology partners to create a better experience for punters using data analytics and digital technologies, which boosted revenues for the body.

His use of technology for the 2014 event earned him a nomination for the retail category of the iTnews Benchmark Awards last year.

He said the time was right to look at new options after delivering the technology elements of the organisation's five-year strategic plan.

Mahir will take on some consulting work as he considers opportunities.

"My proudest achievement at Tennis Australia was building a high-performing team that worked closely with every business unit and collaborated with major partners of the Australian Open and other events," Mahir told iTnews.

"Giving my team members the confidence that they're an intrinsic part of the business, seeing them involved and lead important programs/projects, and watching them contribute to key business initiatives was very important to me and will always be."