Dr Stanley Mpofu (an alumni of the University of the Witwatersrand) is the Chief Information Officer (CIO) of the University. He is a disciplined, influential, ethical, and visionary IT executive with a proven track record of excellent delivery in his 27-year career. Dr. Mpofu copes very well in difficult terrain and in situations where there is chaos that needs to be fixed. He has proven his abilities at Eskom Enterprises as well as at Wits University.
Dr Mpofu is acquainted with taking leadership roles externally. Dr. Mpofu is comfortable operating at an executive level, can handle the pressure these roles demand and can clearly communicate his vision with confidence. He is the Chair of ASAUDIT- which is a board of CIOs from 26 government universities. Additionally, Dr. Mpofu is a board member of Tertiary Education & Research Network of South Africa (TENET), a member of the Ministerial Task Team for Higher Education established during COVID19 and a council member of a Higher Education Private College. Within Wits, Dr Mpofu is a member of various governance structures some of which he chairs.
Dr Mpofu has expertise in ICT business strategy, digital transformation, cybersecurity, mobile strategy, and cloud strategy. Within a short space of time, he has been able to transform Wits’ technology capability by positively influencing methods of learning, teaching and research. His concept of the “Smart Classroom” approved in 2018 and was combined with the University’s “Blended Learning” objective. The implementation of which gave Wits an advantage in their response to COVID19. Wits University adopted full online learning and teaching in less than a month under his stewardship. This resulted in Wits ICT being recognized by the University’s Senior Executive Team (SET) and the University Council as central to the successful learning and teaching, which continued seamlessly throughout the year 2020.
Dr Mpofu has been working in IT since 1995. He rose through the ranks and was appointed Network Administrator in Datavia at Transnet for 10 years. A career change took him to Eskom, where in 15 years he held positions as a project manager, programme manager and Project Office manager. His time at Eskom culminated in a promotion to executive manager in 2010. In the executive role he was responsible for all Eskom Enterprises Group of Companies ICT strategy and Operations. He also Chaired the tender committee.
Dr Mpofu joined Wits in May 2017 as CIO. He had the mammoth task of changing the ICT culture which had been dilapidated due to a lack of leadership. The trust in IT services had been lost throughout the institution, which was compounded by lack of direction, accountability and management leading to common lackadaisical attitude resulting in a complete breakdown of service. It took two years to change the culture, however, he succeeded. By 2020, ICT was among the best rated divisions as per the score card results by the Senior Executive Team and the University Council.
Dr Mpofu is competent at developing and executing strategies, implementing governance structures, and developing a service catalogue to manage service and Service Level Agreements. He holds the principles of ownership and accountability closely. He prefers using agile methods to get things done quickly. Dr Mpofu is passionate about continuously improving and using technology to its full potential.
Key Notes, Panel member and Presentations:
- Panel member at the Gartner CIO Leadership Forum
- Article in Brainstorm Magazine of May 2018
- Keynote speaker at the ASAUDIT NATE Conference in June 2018
- Gartner International Symposium in Cape Town in September 2018
- Panel Member for ITWEB 2020
- Panel Member for Amazon Web Services 2020
- Intelligent CIO Cover August 2020
