NZME appoints Katie Macdiarmid as Chief Information Officer

New Zealand Media and Entertainment has announced the appointment of Katie Macdiarmid to the newly created role of Chief Information Officer.

Katie has more than 25 years of experience in digital and technology roles across multiple industries including media and telecommunications in the United Kingdom and New Zealand. She has completed an MBA with distinction, and a thesis on how disruptive technologies can transform industries. She has been at NZME since 2017 and held the role of GM Digital Products at NZME for the past four years, leading NZME’s digital product and development teams and operating model.

In her new role she will continue to lead the digital delivery as well as taking on responsibility for NZME’s Technology team and ecosystem, led by Chief Technology Officer Bill Hays. She will also lead NZME’s Enterprise AI, staying abreast of the latest Generative AI and emerging technology, ensuring it is weaved into NZME’s technology strategy.

Carolyn Luey, NZME Chief Digital & Publishing Officer says it is fantastic to have someone of Macdiarmid’s calibre to step into this exciting, newly created role.

“The media market continues to change rapidly with traditional and digital media platforms converging, driven by the pace of technology change and the rise of Generative AI. At NZME we saw a real opportunity for us to bring together our digital platform and technology capability under one leader to create a strong business-wide technology and Generative AI strategy. Katie’s experience will be invaluable in the development of our strategy for technology, AI and digital platforms to support NZME to achieve our strategic goals. This will give us a strong competitive advantage in the market,” says Luey.

Macdiarmid says she is looking forward to leading NZME’s technology and digital teams, developing the future state strategy as well as working closely with NZME’s key partners to collectively deliver on NZME’s roadmaps.

“I’m so proud of how the digital teams have evolved over the past few years, delivering strong, business focused, strategic solutions, moving quickly whilst ensuring what we deliver is sustainable into the future. We’ve got the right people and the tools we need to deliver fantastic content experiences for our audiences, to ensure efficiencies across the business, and to support the experiences of our team of 1200 at NZME. I’m excited to bring our digital and technology teams together to further innovate and set us up for our future,” she says.

ENDS