JSE-listed packaging company Nampak has appointed Ernst Van Heerden as acting chief information officer (CIO).
The appointment follows the passing of Michele Hall, who held the role from August 2015.
“Michele passed away on 29 August 2021 after being on disability leave from July 2021, which is when Ernst was appointed as acting CIO,” says Nampak in a statement to ITWeb.
Before taking on the top IT role at Nampak, Hall held several positions at technology services firm BCX from 2005 to 2014.
Van Heerden joined Nampak on 1 July 2004, and held the position of service, design and development manager before being named acting CIO.
Says Matthew Burbidge, editor of Brainstorm Online: “Michelle Hall attended Brainstorm roundtables for years, and wasn’t afraid to go head-to-head with those of differing opinions.
“Her arguments were always eloquently expressed, and had been forged in her career as a CIO in which she was called upon to provide pragmatic technology leadership. She also had a healthy scepticism about new technology trends, particularly when it came to things such as moving her ERP [enterprise resource planning] systems to the cloud. She knew what worked, and wasn’t afraid to say so.”
In 2017, she was named a finalist for the IITPSA Visionary CIO of the Year Award.
According to Burbidge, after she was diagnosed with advanced stage cancer, Hall continued to be active, and as argumentative as ever among her CIO peers.
Hall was regularly profiled in Brainstorm’s annual CIO Directory. In the 2021 edition, asked about lessons learnt from the pandemic that informed her strategy, she said: “Quick decision-making and innovation are critical, as is obtaining the correct technical skills for a digital future.”
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