Tim Hynes, AIB

A conversation with Tim Hynes, AIB

CIO of the Year 2019 winner on his award, proudest moments, and the challenges facing his field
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Tim Hynes, AIB - Tech Excellence Awards CIO of the Year 2019. Presented by Deirdre McCabe, Viatel

7 April 2022

In 2019, Tim Hynes was named CIO of the year at the Tech Excellence Awards for providing AIB with a digital edge over its competitors and leading restructuring efforts in a fast-moving environment. The award recognises outstanding stewardship by the CIO in implementing and integrating IT within the business to drive growth, strategic benefits, and market success.

Ahead of the upcoming Tech Excellence Awards – Ireland’s principal badge of honour in the IT industry –TechCentral.ie caught up Hynes to discuss the win, his proudest moments in the role, and the challenges facing his field.

What did winning the award mean to you?

On a professional level, this award meant a lot because it was awarded by a panel of my peers. These are people who know what it takes to deliver the sort of outcomes that were called out in the submission, so their recognition was particularly meaningful. Even with this factor, the award meant more to me on a personal level because the submission was made by my team, and they only told me after the fact. In truth the award belongs to them because they were the engine of the change we delivered.

You have been responsible for leading AIB’s technology strategy since 2015. What are some of your proudest moments in the role to date?

I am proud of the outcomes we’ve had for our customers, in terms of features, services, and resilience. I am also pleased with the behind-the-scenes improvement, with significant improvements in cost, risk, cyber, and modernisation. The customer improvements have been underpinned by improvements in our foundational capability, meaning that they can be sustained over the coming years. Lastly, the culture that was created is something that I am very proud of. We have worked to a principle of enabling each person to bring their best true self to work every day.

Since the last Tech Excellence Awards took place in 2019, the world we live in has significantly changed. How has your role changed in that time?

The response to the pandemic required a shift in how we enable employees, and this was a key area of progress. The work we had done up to 2020 allowed us to go from 800 remote connections to 10,000+ in less than three weeks, with no compromise in architecture or security standards. Driving on from this, we were central to the delivery of a new way of working for the entire organisation, supporting the continuance and perhaps improvement in overall productivity. I moved from the chief information officer to a chief innovation officer role in April 2021. This has shifted my focus from internal operations and delivery to external engagement and broader strategy and innovation. I’m enjoying the new role and the learning it brings.

Looking towards the future, what are some of the biggest challenges facing your field in the coming 12 months?

I know it is a regular feature in our discourse, but the need to be on top of cyber cannot be overestimated. This needs to be balanced with the increasing speed of change and will need to be embedded into our delivery models. On the flip side, the pandemic brought a massive acceleration in the penetration of digital services. I have been working in technology for 36 years and believe that the potential for people working in this space, to positively impact people’s lives, has never been greater.

For details on how to enter this year’s Tech Excellence Awards click here

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