Executive Education
For Individuals
Technology Leadership Program
The role of the Chief Information Officer (CIO) is among the most dynamic in the enterprise; beyond technology and systems expertise, you need strategic leadership skills to shape your organization’s success. Offered in partnership with the CIO Association of Canada, the Technology Leadership Program will help you gain the leadership skills and strategic perspective to take your IT career to the next level. Faculty members and industry experts will guide you through online modules, facilitated discussions, and a self-paced change project. You will gain an invaluable network of peers across industries while taking a program that fits your busy life.
Schedule
The 2022-2023 Schedule is as follows*:
- Opening Session: September 29, 2022
- Modules: October 1 to November 12, 2022
- Final Capstone Session: February 9, 2023
* Subject to change
Eligibility
This program has been designed in partnership with the CIO Association of Canada.
The program attracts professionals, across industries, who demonstrate the potential to advance from a mid-level IT management or senior technical leadership role to an executive-level role, eventually serving as a CIO. In fact, many participants already hold responsibility for strategic decision-making beyond systems and technology.
Recent participants' titles include:
- VP IT
- Senior Manager, Application Services
- CIO/Software Development manager
- Director, Digital Solutions and Business Technology
- Senior Manager, Business Intelligence & Analytics
- Director of IT, Solutions & Support
- Manager, Enterprise Architecture
Program cost
- CIO Association of Canada Members: CAD $3,300 plus GST, covering all learning materials
- Non-Members: CAD $3,900 plus GST, covering all learning materials as well as Associate membership
Is your employer sponsoring you in this program? They may be eligible for support through the Canada Job Grant.
Curriculum
The Technology Leadership Program includes the following course topics:
IT Manager to Business Leader
Enhance your leadership and management skills and examine an overall framework for leading change. You will learn how to personalize leadership through matching styles of leadership to specific situations and individuals, using the practice of emotional intelligence (EQ) and deep listening.
Leading Projects and Managing Change
Fostering project management skills and practice is key to organizational success. When teamed with the discipline of building business cases, you are more likely to choose the right projects and deliver them effectively. You will learn about the project process, agile methods, business plan development and steps an organization can take to make the best use of its project resources.
Making Executive Decisions: Rational Actor, Organizational Processes & Bureaucratic Politics:
CIOs will invariably find themselves in positions where they need to make outsourcing decisions. You will explore the theoretical underpinnings and practical considerations that you will face when analyzing the motivation and benefits behind outsourcing and implementing outsourcing arrangements.
Aligning Business and IT Strategies
Gain the strategic tools needed to apply the right information with the right technology to the right place in the business. Help create a competitive advantage for your organization by identifying the relationship between core business strategies and the strategic value of information technologies.
Navigating Digital Transformation and Corporate Governance
For many organizations, IT remains the single-largest capital investment. You will gain an appreciation of the benefits and risks to an organization with the information technology investments, understand the role of executives and directors with regard to governance, and enhance your understanding of how to communicate effectively in order to create value and support strategy implementation.
An additional feature of this program is an applied change project:
Capstone Project:
Through this project, you will pick a topic that allows you to apply your learning and insights from the courses and act as a change agent in your organization. The project concludes with a final Capstone session, where you will report back on your project results and lessons learned.
Learning
Networking and Mentorship: Within a small cohort, you will build your network with peers, senior CIOCAN members and established CIOs who have “been there” and can play crucial roles in guiding and facilitating your learning and career.
CIOCAN Membership: Acceptance to the program includes an Associate membership to the CIO Association of Canada for 2022/2023.
Faculty
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Dr. Andrew GeminoProfessor, Management Information Systems & Associate Dean, Graduate Programs, SFU BeedieDr. Andrew Gemino is a Professor and serves as SFU Beedie's Dean pro-tem. He has twice received the Canada Trust Distinguished Teacher award from SFU Beedie. Andrew’s academic research focuses on IT project management, business systems analysis and the design of technology-mediated collaborative environments. He holds a National Sciences and Research Council of Canada (NSERC) grant. He is also the co-founder of a software company that develops commercial software for professional sports teams in the NHL and NBA, as well as automated employee scheduling for sports and entertainment companies. Andrew also provides his expertise to the Surgeon Information System Working Group for the Provincial Surgical Oncology Council which is affiliated with the BC Cancer Agency. |
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Dr. Blaize Horner ReichRBC Professor of Technology and Innovation, SFU Beedie, & Board DirectorDr. Blaize Horner Reich came to academia after 15 years as an information technology professional and consultant in both Canada and Asia. Today, Blaize is the RBC Professor of Technology and Innovation at SFU Beedie and is an internationally respected researcher and speaker. Her research and teaching interests focus on supporting boards during digital transformation and improving the value delivered from technology projects. She has served as Associate Dean, Graduate Programs and Dean, SFU Beedie. Blaize has many years of service on corporate boards, including Industrial Alliance Pacific Life Insurance Company (1999-2012), Central 1 Credit Union (2016-2021), and BC Automobile Association (2017 – current; Chair, Business Transformation sub-committee). She is a founding director of the CIO Association of Canada and served as a director of ICTC. Dr. Reich has been honoured as a WXN Top 100 Women in Canada and was named an Academic Fellow by the International Council of Management Consulting Institutes. |
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Dr. Peter TinglingAssociate Dean, Undergraduate Program, and Associate Professor, Management Information SystemsDr. Peter Tingling joined SFU Beedie from the Richard Ivey School of Business at the University of Western Ontario where his thesis focused on technological decision-making in an organizational context. Although Peter has had a long association with higher education and has taught at several business schools, he also spent more than two decades in the information technology industries, working in several senior line staff positions as well as consulting for a diverse range of Fortune 500 and start-up organizations across North America. He was awarded a 2004 Literati Club research award and a 2007 TD Canada Trust Distinguished Teaching Award. Peter is also the president and CEO of Octothorpe Software Corporation, a decision sciences company. |
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Dr. Sandy MacIverInstructor in CIOCAN program/Part-time LecturerDr. Sandy MacIver has spent the last 44 years learning and teaching in the fields of leadership, teamwork, company values, systems thinking and, especially, trust and trust-building. He has factored knowledge in all of these fields into his three overlapping careers. Sandy has done thirty-three years (and counting) of consulting, executive coaching and working with CEOs and other senior executives. He has advised and assisted in improving performance and working relationships in the workplace, leading applied learning programs and building engaged and productive organizational cultures. His work has spanned North America. Sandy has taught scores of leadership and organization-related classes at four different universities, starting in 1987. Sandy now teaches Leadership in the Manager of Technology MBA program at SFU and in the Values-Based Leadership Certificate at RRU. Sandy's cut his career 'teeth' in public sector planning and policy, for ten years. |
The Technology Leadership Program is offered in partnership with the CIO Association of Canada.
Applications for the 2022-2023 intake of the Technology Leadership Program are now closed. We will begin accepting applications for the 2023-2024 intake in the new year.
Contact Us
Are you ready to advance to an executive-level IT role?
Phone: 778.782.3193
Email: execedpc@sfu.ca