CANADA BIO
Chris Leonard immigrated to Canada with his family in 2012 after a very successful 20 year career as a commissioned Officer in the British Army . His aim was to join Corporate Calgary where he hoped to employ his previous strategic planning and operations experience . A brief spell working at the main Syncrude site in Alberta ’ s oil sands was a prelude to working for Brion Energy back in Calgary . Leonard subsequently joined Plains Midstream Canada in the Summer of 2015 to lead the Strategy and Digital Transformation team within IS , working directly with the CIO . Over the past three years he and a growing team have helped establish a comprehensive Digital Transformation Roadmap which will lead Plains Midstream Canada into the Digital era . As he openly admits , he is not a technologist by background , but is finding the challenge of matching new technologies to business problems and a fascinating area of longterm interest .
“ We partnered with leading industry experts from Sapient , Microsoft and IBM and to look at how best to plan our work , to realize our strategic goals and focus on business needs ”
— Chris Leonard
Director of Strategy and Digital Transformation
add new digital assets to the business in the long term . For instance , they are looking at combining technologies such as digital twins , augmented and mixed reality , and the internet of things ( IoT ). “ Being responsible for both OT and IT enables us to look at the whole picture , applying an IoT lens to the SCADA world for instance ,” says Leonard .
Leonard has also created a strong governance structure that uses analytics to support these strategic goals , which has led to a significant rise in capital investment for Information Services ( IS ) led programs . “ It ’ s great having that long-term vision and roadmap , but unless you ’ ve got that governance to really help you prioritise what work you ’ re capable of doing first , it ’ s very difficult to see the wood for the trees ,” Leonard says .
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