Barry Dwolatzky

This year marks the 35th IT Personality of the Year Award, presented by the Institute of Information Technology Professionals South Africa (IITPSA, formerly CSSA), in association with ITWeb, the Gordon Institute of Business Science, and Gartner Africa.

This year’s candidates for IT Personality of the year are, in alphabetical order:

Barry Dwolatzky - Director of the Joburg Centre for Software Engineering (JCSE)
Barry Dwolatzky is the professor of Software Engineering at Wits University and director of the Joburg Centre for Software Engineering (JCSE) at Wits.

Most recently, Professor Dwolatzky was the mastermind of a new software outreach programme and software hub being developed in Braamfontein, Johannesburg, with the aim to nurture the production and consumption of local ICT products and services.

Mteto Nyati" rel=tag>Mteto Nyati - MD of Microsoft SA

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Mteto Nyati" />Mteto Nyati is the MD of Microsoft South Africa. He is a strong and articulate advocate for the use of technology to help solve economic and social challenges, accelerate economic growth, create jobs and drive innovation to help businesses and governments compete effectively in the global economy.

Since taking the role in September 2008, Nyati has driven Microsoft South Africa’s transformation and turned it into a company that enables a new wave of experiences for people and businesses by using a combination of devices and cloud-based services.

Pieter de Villiers - Founder and CEO of Clickatell

Pieter de Villiers

Pieter de Villiers is responsible for establishing Clickatell as a global mobile messaging provider, enabling tens of thousands of enterprises and millions of consumers to interact and communicate via their mobile phones.

De Villiers has led the company and its employees through a decade of robust growth and innovation by providing high value, application-to-person (A2P) SMS services to banks and other financial service providers, governments, social communities, and myriad mobile developers in several additional vertical markets.

Stafford Masie - Founder, Thumzup

Stafford Masie

Stafford Masie is a local entrepreneur and has been at the forefront of technology all over the world.

A man with a vision and inventive ideas that he can put into action, Stafford founded and runs thumbzup.com and is developing world-first hardware, applications and services for mobile payments with potential global impact. He is passionate about transforming South Africa into a maker of technologies versus the continuous unsustainable consumption.

Wesley Lynch - CEO and founder of Realmdigital

Wesley Lynch

Wesley Lynch is a serial technology entrepreneur and angel investor. He is the CEO and founder of Realmdigital, a leading top South African e-business strategy and technology partner, specialising in Web, social and mobile platforms. Lynch is passionate about new, evolving technology for businesses and proving innovative solutions for the African market. In keeping with his collaborative and entrepreneurial spirit, Lynch recently co-founded AngelHub, the aim of which is to provide mentorship and advisory services to the above two mentioned groups of businesses.

Alec Joannou - CIO of Sasol

Alec Joannou

Alec Joannou joined Sasol in April 2012. At the time, the reputation and ‘brand’ of IM (information management) was at an all-time low, due to the position having been vacant for some time, resulting in services that were unreliable and inconsistent.

Joannou is passionate about making a difference at work, but also in the area of social responsibility. His two key focus areas have been education and health.

Antony Hlungwane - Head of Group IT, Hollard

Antony Hlungwane

Antony Hlungwane is currently the head of Group IT at Hollard Insurance. Hlungwane has delivered various key projects at Hollard that were designed to improve business performance, including implementing a customer intelligence solution designed to monitor and analyse customer purchasing patterns, and thereby enabling the implementation of measures to improve staff morale, enhance customer satisfaction, reduce costs, and increase revenue. His current projects include implementing various systems aimed at improving collections, increasing efficiency in call centre operations, and upgrading legacy systems.

Fred Swanepoel - CIO OF Nedbank

Fred Swanepoel

Fred Swanepoel has more than 23 years’ experience in finance, banking and IT. He joined Nedbank in 1996 and became the divisional director of Group Technology and Support Services in 2004.

Under Swanepoel’s leadership, Group Technology continues to experiment with new technologies such as digital and mobile. In line with Nedbank’s sustainability credentials, Group Technology also takes ‘green’ IT very seriously. Since IT consumes about 40% of the bank’s energy, it is crucial to drive initiatives that decrease Nedbank’s carbon footprint. Swanepoel’s pursuit is to “leverage technology to make Nedbank Africa’s most admired bank”.

Quinton Caryer - CIO for FNB Wealth

Quinton Caryer

Quinton Caryer is the CIO for FNB Wealth, which houses the FNB Private Clients and RMB Private Bank businesses of the FirstRand Group. Due to FNB’s federated business model, he has overall responsibility for strategic projects, software development and IT operations for the business, looking after a team of over 130 professionals.

Caryer has driven a number of initiatives to fundamentally transform the private banking businesses. One of the biggest successes to date has been the launch of a fully integrated iPad application for private bankers – a project that took seven months from concept to initial delivery.

Sal Laher - CIO and Divisional Executive, Eskom SOC Limited

Sal Laher

Sal Laher was appointed CIO and Divisional Executive of Eskom SOC Limited in April 2012. An executive and senior IT professional with over 30 years’ technical, management, and blue chip experience in the IT industry, he has held various roles within the infrastructure management, software delivery, project integration, consultancy, and senior management arenas across many industries: central government, aerospace, retail, financial services, utilities.

Laher managed to turn Eskom IT around into the number one performing business unit within Eskom. He has eradicated audit risks while managing to implement an IT strategy that aims to delivery efficiency and sustainability.