Radlink Communications chief engineer Simon Chan scooped the top individual honours at the inaugural ACS Digital Disruptors Awards.
The awards, held following the ACS Reimagination 2015 conference in Sydney, recognised 50 digital disruptors from industry, government and education.
They received either Gold Disruptor awards as finalists or took out one of 13 award categories.
Each winner was selected from hundreds of entries by an independent judging panel comprising industry experts in technology, innovation, science, academia and business.
Chan – who won ICT Professional of the Year – said he was humbled to receive the accolade.
“It’s been one of those evenings when you sit there and watch everything else that’s going on,” he said in his acceptance speech.
“I’m just blown away by the opportunity to be able to stand before you and humbly accept this award, so thank you very much for the opportunity.”
Chan was separately congratulated by his employer.
And the ICT Professional of the Year for 2015 is... Simon Chan! CONGRATULATIONS! #disruptors2015
— The ACS (@ACSnewsfeed) November 17, 2015
He wins a Photo Tour for two to New York, provided by Udesign, valued at almost $15,000.
— The ACS (@ACSnewsfeed) November 17, 2015
Young ICT Professional of the Year went to Yohan De Silva, a consultant with listed IT services firm DWS, and to Emily Rich, director of Jemsoft.
The team categories were won by an impressive line-up of businesses including the Australian Taxation Office, Woolworths, Serco, CSIRO, The Australian Crime Commission and Blamey Saunders Hears.
The ATO impressed judges by being the first federal agency to deploy a mobile app on all three major app stores after undergoing a major internal cultural transformation.
The taxation office’s mobile apps team designed, built and delivered the app in less than 10 weeks with close, cohesive engagements with key stakeholders, including business partners.
Meanwhile Serco won its category after successfully developing self-service kiosks and self-learning tablets for prisoners to upskill.
“On behalf of the ACS, I’d like to congratulate all the winners and finalists who took part in the Digital Disruptors Awards,” ACS CEO Andrew Johnson said.
“Studies have shown that more than 50 percent of businesses in Australia have been affected by some form of digital disruption so it’s heartening to see that the calibre of entries were second to none.
“We hope the award recognition will spur the teams and individuals to continue to contribute and make an impact on Australia’s technology and innovation scene.”
The full list of winners for the ACS Digital Disruptors 2015 is:
TEAM CATEGORIES
Skills Transformation of Work Team – Small Team (under 20): ATO
Skills Transformation of Work Team – Medium Team (under 200): Woolworths
Skills Transformation of Work Team – Large Team (over 200): SERCO
Service Transformation for the Digital Consumer – Corporate: Blamey Saunders Hears
Service Transformation for the Digital Consumer – Government: Australian Crime Commission
Service Transformation for the Digital Consumer – NGO or NFP: CSIRO
INDIVIDUAL CATEGORIES
ICT Consultant of the Year: Clinton House
ICT Higher Education Educator of the Year: Anton Bogdanovych
ICT Higher Education Student of the Year: Jacob Wilson
ICT Professional of the Year: Simon Chan
ICT Researcher of the Year: Gernot Heiser
Young ICT Professional of the Year – female: Emily Rich
Young ICT Professional of the Year – male: Yohan De Silva
