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One free scan finds every outdated or missing driver and matches the right update for your exact hardware.Free scan · exact hardware matchThe CIO50 and CSO30 Awards Australia 2025 were held on Tuesday, September 23, 2025, at Doltone House, Hyde Park, Sydney. Foundry presented the joint gala through the CIO Australia and CSO Online brands.
Arul Arogyanathan, Chief Information Officer at Village Roadshow, ranked No. 1 in the CIO50 and was named CIO of the Year. The CSO30 category winners were Shaun Martin of Aware Super for Business Value, Manasseh Paradesi, formerly of Tyro Payments, for Leadership, and Duné Sookloll of Horizon Power for Next CISO. The 2025 ceremony was an in-person black-tie event, and is now a completed historical event.
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CIO50 and CSO30: what the two awards recognise
The awards were related but distinct programs presented at the same event:
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- CIO50: recognises senior technology and digital executives in Australia. Its principal result is a ranked list of individual technology leaders, supplemented by team awards and the emerging-leader Next CIO award.
- CSO30: recognises cybersecurity leaders and security initiatives that strengthen organisational protection, resilience, stakeholder outcomes and business value. Its core list is a group of honourees, not a first-to-thirtieth ranking.
Both programs form part of Foundry’s global awards activity and are associated with the CIO and CSO Online editorial brands.
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At a glance
| Program | Primary audience | 2025 format | Headline result |
|---|---|---|---|
| CIO50 | Chief information officers and senior technology and digital executives | Ranked individual list, team awards and Next CIO | Arul Arogyanathan, Village Roadshow, ranked No. 1 |
| CSO30 | Chief security officers and senior cybersecurity leaders | 30-person honouree list plus category awards | Shaun Martin, Manasseh Paradesi and Duné Sookloll won the named categories |
CIO50 2025: top 10
The CIO50’s top-ranked technology leaders were:
- Arul Arogyanathan — Chief Information Officer, Village Roadshow
- Sinan Erbay — formerly Chief Information Officer, RMIT
- Andrew Dome — Chief Digital Information Officer, Uniting NSW
- Miranda Ratajski — CIO Group Business Units, Westpac
- Chris Johnson — Executive Head of LiSTNR Product & Technology, Southern Cross Austereo
- Brett Reedman — Chief Information Officer, Catholic Healthcare
- John Vohradsky — Executive GM – Infrastructure & Technology, IRT Group
- Stevie-Ann Dovico — Chief Information Officer, Beyond Bank
- Tom Gao — Chief Technology and Digital Services Officer, City of Sydney
- Noel Toal — formerly Chief Information Officer, DPV Health
Read the CIO report on the 2025 results and the official CIO50 awards page.
What the judges highlighted
The CIO50 was not simply a measure of IT delivery or technical performance. The published examples point to a broader assessment of technology leadership, innovation, transformation, culture and business outcomes.
- Arogyanathan was recognised for AI enablement and stakeholder engagement at Village Roadshow.
- Erbay helped move RMIT from isolated AI pilots towards broader enterprise adoption.
- Dome led the development of Uniting’s “Buddy” generative-AI assistant for care workers.
- VicRoads was recognised for a large-scale passkey deployment.
- BAE Systems Australia’s transformation supported 6,500 employees working on national-security programs.
- TLC Healthcare was recognised for an AI- and biometric-enabled medication ecosystem. Descriptions such as “world’s first” are claims attributed to the winning entry, not independently audited findings.
The CIO50 team awards
Culture & Inclusion
Winner: Victoria University’s Digital & Campus Services team.
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The winning entry combined IT Services and Facilities and used Future Leaders and Graduate Programs, together with a cultural-behaviours framework, to support a people-focused workplace.
Customer Value
Winner: VicRoads.
Finalists: City of Sydney, Corporate Travel Management, iCare, ProbeCX, Restive and VicRoads.
VicRoads’ passkey program reportedly created more than one million passkeys in three months, saved users approximately 15,000 days annually and improved convenience as well as security. Those figures come from the published awards coverage and should not be treated as an independent audit.
Transformation
Winner: BAE Systems Australia.
Finalists: Aware Super, Astellas Pharma, BAE Systems, Catholic Healthcare, HBF Health and Metro Trains Sydney.
The cited transformation approach covered flexible architecture, business enablement, productivity and automation, digital experience, secure foundations and a data-driven enterprise.
Innovation in Emerging Tech
Winner: TLC Healthcare.
Finalists: City of Sydney, Corporate Travel Management and TLC Healthcare.
Coverage linked the award to TLC Healthcare’s use of AI and biometrics in medication management.
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The official CIO50 page presents the top 25 in rank order and the names in positions 26–50 alphabetically. Because the supplied results do not reproduce those remaining names, readers checking the complete published list should use the official CIO50 page. The alphabetical presentation of positions 26–50 should not be interpreted as an exact ranking within that group.
Next CIO
Winner: Victor Rahman, Head of IT at Atturra.
Other finalists: Igor Gjorgjioski of VicRoads and Rolf Samonte of Metro Trains Sydney.
Next CIO is aimed at emerging ICT leaders who are on the path towards becoming CIOs. The CIO finalist report contains the published award details.
CSO30 2025 category winners
Business Value
Winner: Shaun Martin, Aware Super.
Highly commended: Keyur Lavingia, Village Roadshow.
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Martin was recognised for an intelligence-led security approach intended to create measurable value while protecting Aware Super members’ retirement savings.
Leadership
Winner: Manasseh Paradesi, formerly Tyro Payments.
Highly commended: Jocelyn “Joss” Howard, Scyne Advisory.
Paradesi was recognised for stakeholder engagement and mentoring programs. Howard was recognised for building a cyber team during organisational transformation, with an emphasis on diversity and capability development.
Next CISO
Winner: Duné Sookloll, Cyber & Information Security Officer, Horizon Power.
Finalist: Jumar Pando, Cyber Security Operations Manager, Emeis Cosmetics Pty Ltd, trading as Aesop.
CSO30 Australia 2025 honourees
The published CSO30 list is alphabetical rather than a numerical ranking:
- Hani Arab — Seymour Whyte
- Sameera Bandara — Programmed and PERSOL
- Gary Barnden — Pacific National
- Nick Bellette — Custom Fleet
- David Buerckner — Probe Group
- James Court — Cleanaway
- David Geber — Rest
- Joel Earnshaw — Perenti
- Chris Grisdale — hipages Group
- Daryll Holland — Alii Technology Group
- Andrew Hottes — Cranbrook School
- Jocelyn “Joss” Howard — Scyne Advisory
- Bob Kombora — Vulcan Steel
- Shane Laffin — Dulux Group
- Keyur Lavingia — Village Roadshow
- Chris Mace — NSW Nurses & Midwives Association
- Shaun Martin — Aware Super
- Dan Maslin — Monash University
- Nathan Morelli — SA Power Networks
- Christopher Neal — Ramsay Health Care
- Nicole Neil — Fresh Clinics
- Laura O’Neill — Fujitsu Australia
- Manasseh Paradesi — formerly Tyro Payments
- Maria Paz — Epworth Health
- Moet Sela — Catholic Healthcare
- Scott Sorley — University of Southern Queensland
- Sandeep Taileng — State Trustees Victoria
- Noel Toal — formerly DPV Health
- Wouter Veugelen — FTI Consulting
- Indika Wimalasiri — Praemium
- Leron Zinatullin — Linkly
The list contains 30 names, while the category winners, highly commended entries and Next CISO finalists are separate recognitions. The CSO Online results report is the source for the honouree list and category results.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.How the awards were judged
CIO50
The nomination coverage said the CIO50 was open to people with overall responsibility for their organisation’s ICT vision and strategy. It also described an independent judging panel made up of former CIO50 winners, industry analysts and Foundry global editors.
The published judging emphasis included technology leadership, innovation, transformation, cultural impact and business outcomes. No exact scoring weights or numerical formula were published in the supplied sources.
CSO30
CSO30 nominees were evaluated on the impact of their cybersecurity initiatives, collaboration with and influence over stakeholders, improvements to enterprise cybersecurity and resilience, and contributions to the wider cybersecurity community.
The available coverage does not provide a complete public scoring rubric, weighting system, timetable or full judging-panel roster for CSO30.
When and where was the ceremony?
The official Foundry event page and post-event coverage identify the ceremony as Tuesday, September 23, 2025, at Doltone House, Hyde Park, 3/181 Elizabeth Street, Sydney NSW 2000. It was an in-person black-tie gala.
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1Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errors2Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minute3Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsOne CIO event listing displays August 31, 2025. That conflicts with the official Foundry event page, finalist announcement and post-event reports, which support September 23. The August date appears to be stale or erroneous event metadata rather than the ceremony date.
The event was sponsor-supported. Foundry identified Fusion5 as headline sponsor, Freshworks as presenting signature sponsor for CIO Top 50, Verizon as presenting signature sponsor for CSO Top 30, and Virtual IT Group as presenting signature sponsor for The Next CIO. Sponsorship indicates event support, not an independent endorsement of those companies or their products.
What the 2025 results suggest
The results point to several themes, although these are interpretations of the published winners rather than official conclusions from the organisers:
Quick Recap
- AI is being judged by operational value. The highlighted examples involved enterprise adoption, care-worker support and integrated service delivery—not experimentation alone.
- Identity is a customer-experience issue as well as a security issue. VicRoads’ passkey recognition shows how authentication can be assessed through both protection and user convenience.
- Cybersecurity leadership increasingly includes business influence. The CSO30 categories rewarded stakeholder engagement, measurable value and resilience alongside technical security work.
- People and capability remain technology outcomes. The Culture & Inclusion and Leadership recognitions placed mentoring, diversity, development and workplace design alongside transformation.
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