Doors Appointment Image by Esa Riutta from PixabayIFS has appointed two women to senior positions on its executive board. Helena Nimmo joins the company as CIO.

Nimmo will take on a role that is externally and internally facing. She will engage with the CIOs and tech leaders of the IFS customer base to advise them on their strategic transformation journeys. Nimmo will also be responsible for driving the effective use of technology inside IFS. Thus enabling the company to deliver better products and services internally and to customers. She will spearhead the IFS strategy of integrating AI across the IFS community. Thus increasing the exceptional moments of service that it delivers to clients.

The second appointment is that of Debra McCowan as Chief Human Resources Officer (CHRO). It isn’t clear whether Kate Bishop is staying with the company, stepping down or retiring. Her LinkedIn profile indicates that she is a CHRO at IFS.

Update: IFS has informed Enterprise Times that Kate Bishop is retiring, after a distinguished career in HR.

IFS is a rapidly growing company, that is swiftly expanding to have over 7,000 employees in over 90 countries. McCowan will now lead the HR transformation strategy it has been undertaking for several years, building high-performing teams around the globe.

Mark Moffat, CEO of IFS
Mark Moffat, CEO of IFS

Mark Moffat, IFS CEO, commented, “I’m delighted that Helena and Debra are joining IFS at such a pivotal point in its growth journey. Helena’s leadership has been instrumental in orchestrating company-wide transformations, developing core technology infrastructures, and implementing robust security measures.

“Debra is a transformational Human Resources Executive with years of global leadership experience in the technology sector, making her an excellent fit for this role. I look forward to the new perspectives and ideas they will both bring to IFS and support our global mission to lead the Industrial AI revolution.”

Who is Helena Nimmo

Helena Nimm, CIO, IFS (image credit - LinkedIn/Helena Nimm)
Helena Nimm, CIO, IFS

Nimmo joins IFS from Endava, where she was CIO for the US-listed global technology company, which has over 12,000 users. She is an experienced executive and has held several non-executive roles during her career.

Nimmo was also CTI/CIO at Euromonitor International where she helped to modernise the product and IT estate, migrating them to the Cloud. She was also Technology Director at Thomson Reuters. There she was responsible for content technology – digitisation, content creation tools, content centres – and customer software product development and implementation.

She began her career at Nokia in Finland and has worked in leadership roles at several technology companies. Including Symbian Software, CoCom, Fujitsu and Cancer Research.

Nimmo commented, “I’m delighted to be joining IFS, the world leader in cloud enterprise software and Industrial AI. I am excited to add my expertise to drive digital innovation and deliver exceptional value to our customers. I have a passion for technology and a commitment to excellence and am eager to contribute to IFS’s continued growth and success.”

Who is Debra McCowan

Debra McCowan, Chief Human at IFS Resources Officer (CHRO) (image credit - LinkedIn/Debra McCowan)
Debra McCowan, Chief Human at IFS Resources Officer (CHRO)

McGowan joins IFS from NetApp, the global data infrastructure, AI and Cloud services company where she was Executive Vice President & Global Chief Human Resources Officer. She spent over five and a half years in the role at NetApp. Following a five-year stint as CHRO at Equinix. McGowan is an experienced Global CHRO and will bring a depth of experience to IFS that it needs as it continues to expand globally.

She also held senior HR roles at Avago and Hitachi Data Systems. Most of her tenures are for significant periods, and there is no reason to doubt that she will help bring stability to the IFS HR leadership. She began her career in Australia at Telstra and has qualifications from the University of Melbourne and La Trobe University.

McGowan commented, “Joining IFS at a time of significant growth globally is a tremendous opportunity. My mission is to continue to build a conducive environment for diverse, strategically aligned high performing teams to connect and thrive in a fast-paced business and in a dynamic workplace. I look forward to this exciting challenge.”

Enterprise Times: What does this mean

These are two significant hires for Moffat, in positions of importance for the IFS organisation. Importantly, for Moffat and IFS, these are not women who seek rapid changes in employees but stay and help to transform the businesses they have worked in previously. As IFS grows, it needs to attract and retain these kinds of leaders, ones who will help build the company and realise the potential it is already showing.

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