UNSW brings in Chrissy Burns as new CIO

UNSW has appointed Chrissy Burns as its chief information officer.

Burns joins UNSW after a decade spent in various roles at the University of Technology Sydney, mostly as its CIO. She also spent some years at legal firm Ashurst.

At UNSW, she will report to vice-president of operations, Andrew Walters.

The university's technology operations were previously led by Jeff Peers, who served as UNSW’s chief technology and infrastructure officer since 2020.

Peers remains at the university but has taken the role of chief property officer, leading estate management.

"It is immensely rewarding to contribute to an organisation known for providing world class education, and research that has global impact and is addressing some of society’s greatest challenges,"Burns wrote on LinkedIn.

“UNSW is at a critical juncture when it comes to digital.

“The experiences of the past two years have significantly increased both the demand for digital and thinking about the possibilities that technology affords.”

Burns told iTnews the university has a number of major projects on the go.

“UNSW is running a very large migration to AWS that will transform the way we use technology creating a modern technology stack and driving a significant move to DevOps practices. We actively use many Azure products in our effort to be the best,” she said.

Student experience is another major item in the program of work.

“The university is embarking on an ambitious program of work to provide our students and researchers with a modern, simple user experience that provides them what they want when they want it. 

“It includes refreshed teaching and learning systems and technologies to deliver the best on campus and hybrid experiences depending on student’s needs."

There is also a “significant” cyber security program under way, with the support of UNSW’s vice-chancellor and the university council.

Finally, she said: “Integration is at the heart of our future, and we are driving changes in that area too so we can deliver the best end to end experiences possible.”

Burns told iTnews the she is “looking forward to continuing to build” UNSW IT’s “talented and energetic IT team”.

“There are currently six roles advertised across IT with eight more roles in the pipeline.

“These roles are across leadership, cyber security and student experience,” she said.