The Reserve Bank of Australia has appointed Stephen Smith as its new chief information officer following the departure of Gayan Benedict in early October.
Smith - the RBA's deputy head of IT - had been acting CIO after Benedict left for the CTO role at Salesforce in Australia and New Zealand.
The central bank made the announcement via LinkedIn, saying Smith's appointment as permanent CIO will see him "provide strategic technical leadership while ensuring our systems remain secure, highly resilient and efficient."
“We’re thrilled to announce Stephen Smith as our new chief information officer," the bank said.
“Stephen is a seasoned leader in the technology industry with over 25 years of strategic and operational IT experience.”
Commenting on his new position, Smith said he is “honoured” to take on the position “at this incredibly exciting time in the bank’s history”.
“I am proud of the role the bank has played in supporting the Australian economy throughout the pandemic,” Smith said.
“As we move forward into a post-pandemic world, I’m looking forward to working with the bank’s strong leadership team to lead the technology function into the next stage of its journey.”
Smith has held the deputy head of IT positon at RBA for two years after initially joining the bank in 2019 as its deputy head of infrastructure and operations.
Before the RBA, Smith was the general manager for ICT strategy and architecture for TAFE NSW from 2017 to 2019.
He also previously worked across various IT-driven roles at Service NSW for over two years which saw Smith play a key role in the roll out of the state’s digital licence initiative; and was also at one time the chief architect at Westpac.
