Yarra Valley Water CIO - One of the best in Australia 

Leigh Berrell, Chief Information Officer at Yarra Valley Water has been named one of the top 10 Chief Information Officers in the country by CIO Australia. 

24 November 2016

The inaugural CIO50 list recognises Australia’s 50 most innovative and effective Chief Information Officers who are influencing change across their organisations.

Pat McCafferty, Managing Director congratulated Leigh on his win, which was a huge achievement.

“I am personally very pleased to congratulate Leigh on his success. To be named in the top ten across Australia, when competing with some of the biggest organisations in the country is an enormous achievement, but not entirely 
surprising. Leigh embodies our culture and has played a large role in helping to shape our organisation during his time here,” said Mr McCafferty. 

Speaking about the achievement Leigh Berrell, Chief Information Officer added “This recognition reflects the tremendous effort of Yarra Valley Water's IT team and their business partners over the last few years. It has been my privilege to lead the team and I'm in awe of what they have achieved.”

Leigh was nominated by Yarra Valley Water for the CIO50 due to the delivery of IT projects and initiatives in the business, but also due to his ability to recognise the ongoing and measurable improvements in the quality of the services his team delivers. 

“Leigh is never shy to back away from a challenge, a few years ago Leigh took the bold decision to insource our IT services. This was after more than a decade of outsourced services, which was the norm for most organisations. However, the move paid off delivering lower costs, more effective systems delivery and a huge increase in staff satisfaction with IT services at Yarra Valley Water, well over 80 per cent and it continues to grow each year. The reliability of our systems has more than tripled in the last few years.

“Thanks to Leigh we have established our IT teams to be cross-functional and to hold responsibility for delivering both exceptional operational outcomes and the delivery of new innovative products and services. In all projects within Leigh’s area the principle focus is to identify the right business stakeholders to guide the development of these systems. At the end of next week Leigh is leaving us to move to another organisation with new challenges, we wish him all the best, but he will be sorely missed” added Mr McCafferty.

For more information, contact the media team on (03) 9872 1301 email [email protected].