De Beers Group CIO is the latest IT leader to be nominated for the awards.
Debbie Vermaak, who has served as the CIO of De Beers Group since 2020, has been nominated for the 2024 CIO Awards. She has more than three decades of IT experience with at least 20 of those years having been in global roles.
Before joining Anglo American, Debbie worked at IBM as a senior IT manager, one of her many roles was a transition manager role, where she oversaw the transition, transformation, and management of approximately 300 jobs to South Africa. This involved consolidating services from 14 countries into a centralised location in South Africa for a project with Amsterdamsche Bank and Rotterdamsche Bank (ABN AMRO Bank).
She later became the senior IT specialist manager: Integrated Delivery Centre at IBM supporting 60 clients. Following this, Debbie began her stint in the mining industry as infrastructure manager for Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) at Anglo American before joining De Beers Group.
Debbie has participated in several developmental activities throughout her career, including technical, leadership and project management, an IBM and Anglo American leadership programme, and a Gartner executive programme.
The 2024 CIO Awards recognise individuals who have excelled in an IT capacity in their respective industries, built and led great teams, and effectively completed crucial initiatives in their organisations. The awards also highlight the world-class excellence that has come to be associated with South Africa’s top IT executives.
