Douglas Elsmore
CIO
City of Brampton
Douglas Elsmore is the acting Chief Information Officer for the City of Brampton and a Governing Body Member of the Toronto CIO Community. Douglas has a passion for transforming IT from a perceived overhead to an integral business partner. He defines, implements and delivers on short-term goals with a long-term vision. He has strengths in developing and maintaining a positive working environment through inspiration and positive engagement, which is needed for highly effective, creative and innovative teams.
Learn more about the Toronto CIO community here.
Give us a brief overview of the path that led to your current role.
I have a technical background, having lead roles in server administration, networking and enterprise architecture. I subsequently moved into Operational Management roles where I worked to support and streamline processes and the technology landscape. I have managed diverse IT areas including IT security, contract management and digital innovation.
What is one of your guiding leadership principles?
Lead by example.
What is the greatest challenge CIOs face today, and how are you addressing it?
The greatest challenge is ensuring the ability of the staff and the processes that make up the services are prepared to leverage the ever changing technology. You need to remember that the processes are the essence of the service. Technology is there to enable the processes.
What is the key to success for someone just starting out as a CIO?
As with any new role, guidance and mentorship from someone with more experience can make a huge difference.
How do you measure success as a leader?
For me, it’s having everyone knowing where we are going as a group and what value they have to contribute to all of us successfully getting there.
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