Shubha Sridhar is Executive Director – CIO at the Australian and New Zealand College of Anaesthetists (ANZCA), where she leads technology, growth, and innovation for one of the largest specialist medical colleges across Australia and New Zealand.
A purpose-led technology leader, Shubha has driven significant modernisation of ANZCA’s technology landscape – strengthening cybersecurity, addressing technology debt, and laying the foundations for data and AI to support the college’s future in specialist medical education.
From Architecture To Technology Leadership
When Shubha arrived in Melbourne with an Architecture degree from a well-known engineering college in India, she hoped to leverage her creative skills to design and build in the ‘land of milk and honey.’ Instead, she found herself at a crossroads: bridge her skills to adapt to Australian building codes, or explore the exciting world of technology which was drawing unprecedented attention as the world prepared for the looming Y2K apocalypse.
Having idolized many technology leaders who had transformed our economies and daily lives, she decided to enrol in a postgraduate Computer Science degree, learning to code, manage databases, and develop web applications. Within weeks of completing her course, she landed her first IT job as a graduate consultant at a fintech firm with government and private sector accounts and plenty of travel.
“My journey in technology began, and there was no looking back,” she recalls. “I knew this was where I wanted to be. I was very fortunate to have some great managers along the way and my technical knowledge, people skills, and ability to think strategically opened doors to leadership opportunities.”
A Career Built On People And Purpose
Shubha spent her first 10 years in consulting – from Deloitte and KPMG to fast-growing startups that threw her in the deep end. There she built powerful skills in understanding customer needs, stakeholder engagement and communication, prioritisation and time management, and the resilience to push through demanding engagements.
She then left consulting to work for end-users across Government, Corporate, and Private Sectors – including mining, utilities, regulatory bodies, and aged care – learning first-hand the differences in customer service challenges across sectors, and managing operations across multiple states.
A defining experience came when an inspiring CIO trusted her to lead a technology merger, which taught her how to lead significant business transformations. “Leading people across two organisations to deliver business outcomes for a merged entity with non-negotiable deadlines was an experience like no other,” she recalls. “It highlighted the importance of a people-first approach and prepared me for the next step in my career.”
Shubha was working in aged care when the ANZCA opportunity arose. She was drawn to it immediately: a purpose-led not-for-profit organisation committed to community wellbeing, uniquely positioned at the intersection of health, education, and research. It was also binational – operating across Australia and New Zealand – and one of the largest, most highly regarded specialist medical colleges, with over 11,000 members and trainees. The college sought an inaugural CIO to drive technology, growth, and innovation. Convinced it was the perfect challenge, Shubha couldn’t wait to begin.
“3.5 years on, as CIO and Deputy Chair of the ICT Governance Committee, I can honestly say it’s truly a privilege to be part of the college and work alongside some extraordinary individuals – including Board Director and Chair of the ICT Committee, Associate Professor Dr Stuart Marshall, recipient of the prestigious Robert Orton Medal, who also chairs the ANZCA Research Committee in addition to being a Clinical Director and Human Factors consultant, and an incredibly supportive Chair,” she reflects.
Balancing Operations With Transformation
Shubha’s motivation to lead technology transformation and innovation comes from understanding its enormous potential to deliver strategic outcomes and make a difference for the sector and community. She notes that the external environment plays a major role – from progressive leaders and innovators within the organisation and across the sector, to the bright minds of committed staff and volunteers, partners and vendors constantly evolving and unlocking possibilities, and industry bodies and networks that generously share experiences, opportunities, and learnings.
She firmly believes that balancing operational imperatives and strategic objectives with innovation and transformation demands three things: (1) a clear mandate from the Board owned by the Executive Leadership team; (2) a fit-for-purpose operating model and disciplined approach to building capability and capacity; and (3) most importantly, business readiness to support and absorb the change to ensure value realisation from the investment.
“Once the vision and guardrails are established, a clear roadmap and strong partnerships can help deliver incremental value over time,” she emphasises.
Evolving Definitions Of Technology Leadership
For Shubha, success in technology leadership means technology and digital become integral to business strategy – not merely a back-office operational function, but a seat at the executive table and the attention of Boards, informing strategic decisions that enable growth, innovation, and transformation while ensuring security.
She notes it’s not uncommon for the IT function to sit under ‘Corporate Services’ with the COO or CFO overseeing modest budgets. She laments that many organisations treat technology as merely a cost-centre to manage hardware and infrastructure and fund licenses to keep the business running. Their IT leaders aren’t consulted on major decisions and find themselves at the tail-end of system and solution choices made by business leaders.
However, she’s noticed a significant shift in the narrative with the rising importance of technology leadership. Technology and security experts now inform business strategy – surfacing data and insights, improving customer experience and retention, unlocking revenue through new products and services, and protecting businesses against cyber risks.
“The rise of AI has further amplified technology as a foundational capability to unlock business opportunities. Boards are recognising the importance of the CIO role today, even among smaller organisations,” Shubha observes.
Overcoming Transformation Challenges In Medical Education
Shubha’s biggest challenge as inaugural CIO was balancing strategic imperatives and business ambition with operational priorities. Business expectations had to be managed, and the desire for rapid digital uplift tempered as the college embarked on its transformation journey – juggling competing priorities with limited capacity to absorb the workload and change impact.
The way through was a two-speed approach: mitigating critical risks while establishing foundational capabilities to unlock growth and transformation. The Board signed off on a carefully considered technology roadmap, committing to incremental delivery of value over time.
“Within 18 to 24 months, cybersecurity maturity had improved, technology debt had reduced, and the college released a highly anticipated mobile app for members. By the third year, we had commenced the transition of services to the cloud, replacing legacy technology with contemporary, scalable enterprise platforms and solutions to unlock future opportunities,” Shubha affirms.
A Technology Merger & ANZCA Transformation
While every role has had its highlights, Shubha notes that bringing two distinct water retailers together through a technology merger – on time and on budget – was a significant career achievement. Partnering with peers and team members across both organisations to deliver 250+ technology interventions for a merged entity demanded unwavering commitment and resilience.
“The experience highlighted the importance of teamwork and led to lasting friendships,” she reflects. “From a personal perspective, building a high-performing technology function at ANZCA and watching the team mature as we delivered a major technology transformation – including laying the foundations for data and AI – has been hugely rewarding. I feel enormous pride and joy knowing the college has made incredible progress with technology and is set up well for future success.”
Leading With Purpose & People First
Shubha describes her leadership style as approachable, honest, and supportive. “I like the simple yet powerful ‘model, coach, care’ philosophy of Satya Nadella. I firmly believe one must lead by example and ensure empathy and care for their people,” she affirms.
She encourages teams to learn from failures, sharing a Bill Gates quote: “Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning” – emphasising the importance of listening to feedback and continuously improving.
Shubha also notes that Dr Tanya Selak, is the college’s first President from a regional centre. She is an exceptional leader and a strong advocate for equitable access to high-quality healthcare, including support for clinicians working in regional areas. Always ready to listen, learn, share, and connect, Dr Selak puts people first in all her interactions, and acknowledges volunteer and staff contributions at every opportunity.
“I’m proud to say the technology team at ANZCA is highly regarded by stakeholders across the business. A truly service-oriented function, the team is proactive, collaborative, exceptionally committed, and highly respectful in their interactions,” Shubha observes. “A recent staff engagement survey confirmed that the Technology team was highly motivated and engaged despite challenges due to the significant transformation and workload – a testament to a positive culture within the team.”
“The college is like a village, and the volunteers are our elders who help steer it.” – Dr Tanya Selak, President, ANZCA.
Building Team Culture And Leadership Strength
Building a strong team culture and leadership bench remains a key focus for Shubha. She invests her time in mentoring, coaching, and developing the team across strategic thinking and decision-making, prioritisation, risk management, stakeholder engagement, communication, and change management. “Frederic Laloux’s model for building ‘effective organisations’ has inspired me to trust and empower individuals to self-organise and deliver on goals and lead without micromanagement.
From the perspective of strategic technology leadership, preparing the organisation for AI adoption at scale and leveraging technology to address challenges like workforce shortages and unlocking growth opportunities are front and centre,” she shares.
Reshaping Technology at a Specialist Medical College
Over the past three years, ANZCA has significantly modernised its technology landscape. Investment in security and infrastructure uplift has mitigated business risks; strategic platforms have improved operational efficiency and reliability, while enabling growth and innovation; modular development has improved reusability and speed-to-market; and a flexible operating model with strategic partnerships has created scalable capacity to deliver on an ambitious roadmap. “And all this has been achieved without cost blowouts,” Shubha emphasises.
She believes ANZCA is now better positioned to support future priorities in specialist medical education – growing and expanding new education offerings, scaling delivery of programs like the world-first Perioperative Medicine qualification, advancing leadership in safety, quality and pain management, improving security and user experience through considered solution design, enhancing data and insights for informed decisions, and enabling workforce productivity through safe and responsible AI use across operational functions.
“This progress would not have been possible without the steadfast commitment of the Presidents and Board, the exceptional fellows and volunteers who generously give their time, and the highly experienced Executive and senior leadership team who are the engine room of the organisation,” she insists.
Mentoring Emerging Technology Leaders
On mentoring emerging professionals, Shubha shares a Simon Sinek quote on leadership: “It’s not about being in charge, it’s about taking care of those in your charge.” One of her most rewarding aspects of leadership is the responsibility of building and nurturing high-performing teams.
“Over the years, I’ve enjoyed passing on what I’ve learnt from personal experience to help aspiring technology leaders. I’ve had the pleasure of identifying and guiding many talented individuals – coaching, challenging, and nurturing them to navigate and find their career progression pathway,” she reflects, adding that her most valuable lessons align with the ‘Ikigai’ philosophy.
Shubha highlights the importance of self-reflection to understand personal strengths and motivations for growth, following passions to carve out one’s own path to success rather than recreating someone else’s journey, and being brave enough to stretch beyond one’s comfort zone to truly learn, grow, and realise one’s potential.
“I stress the importance of a growth mindset, curiosity for lifelong learning, and discipline – because there are no shortcuts to success,” she explains, concluding with a Steve Jobs quote: “Great things in business are never done by one person; they’re done by a team of people. Collaboration is key to achieving extraordinary results.”
Inspiring Future Technology Leaders
Shubha notes that technology is evolving rapidly, and the pace of change is significantly higher than in years past. Major enterprise systems no longer have long shelf-lives, and patching and upgrade cycles are getting shorter every day. Predicting the long-term future is nearly impossible, making it essential to regularly revisit the effectiveness of enterprise digital solutions and the performance of the technology strategy.
Given these challenges, she hopes future technology leaders and NFP organisations will look to ANZCA’s considered approach when navigating technology investment decisions to deliver long-term value. “I hope they appreciate how the college was resourceful and able to juggle competing priorities, choose progress over perfection, and strike a balance between innovation and cost-effectiveness through flexible, reusable, and interoperable design and architecture – delivering value while extending the life and ROI of our investments,” she says.
Shubha notes that there are plenty of opportunities for technology leaders to make a real difference in the sector, and ultimately for the community. She encourages aspiring leaders to commit to the sector for a rewarding experience, and remain open to opportunities across a variety of organisations that might not seem like the obvious choice at first.
She also advises investing in understanding the broader business context rather than focusing on technology alone, networking with colleagues, peers and partners across the sector, building a strong team, and staying resilient through challenges. “You could be the next technology leader to share your story and inspire others,” she says.
Leaving a Legacy in Specialist Medical Education
Shubha believes the journey at ANZCA has only just begun, with limitless possibilities for technology to transform specialist medical education – from back-office productivity for supervisors and assessors to trainee-facing services like virtual coaches and simulations. Yet the clinical profession is understandably risk-averse: while technology can solve low-risk problems, human oversight remains critical in high-stakes scenarios demanding quality and integrity.
She hopes ANZCA’s technology investments will not only modernise training and education but also address critical sector challenges – alleviating workforce shortages, improving community engagement and transparency, enabling greater government collaboration on accessibility and affordability, and developing new products and services that advance the clinical profession and patient safety.
Conclusion
Shubha Sridhar’s leadership at ANZCA reflects a clear conviction: technology belongs at the heart of business strategy. Through a disciplined, people-first approach, she has built a high-performing function, delivered transformation without cost blowouts, and positioned the college to embrace AI, data, and digital innovation – leaving a legacy of progress, resilience, and readiness for whatever comes next.