Catherine Vance
Director of Information Technology | Enterprise Systems Modernization & Strategic IT Governance
Vancouver
Executive Summary
Strategic IT Director with extensive leadership across enterprise infrastructure modernization, governance, and operational resilience within regulated Canadian industries. Proven record directing multi-million-dollar technology budgets, managing cross-functional technical teams, and aligning digital initiatives with organizational growth.
Professional Experience
Pacifica Health Logistics
Vancouver, Canada
Director of Information Technology
Mar 2020 – Present
- Lead an enterprise IT department of 42 technical staff supporting province-wide clinical supply operations.
- Oversee an annual capital and operating technology budget of 11.4 million CAD, consistently maintaining variance within 2%.
- Direct the multi-year modernization of core enterprise resource planning and cold-chain monitoring systems across 6 regional distribution centres.
- Architect comprehensive cyber security posture updates aligned with provincial health data governance, reducing audit vulnerability findings by 85%.
- Negotiate strategic multi-year vendor contracts for cloud infrastructure, yielding 480,000 CAD in recurring annual licensing savings.
Strata Maritime Solutions
Vancouver, Canada
Head of Information Technology
Aug 2015 – Feb 2020
- Directed enterprise IT infrastructure, technical support, and data operations across 4 Canadian port terminal facilities.
- Managed a 26-member multidisciplinary engineering team delivering 99.98% uptime for mission-critical vessel tracking systems.
- Executed migration of on-premises corporate infrastructure to hybrid cloud environments, retiring 48 aging rack servers.
- Established an IT service management framework adhering to ITIL standards, decreasing incident mean-time-to-resolution by 38%.
Cascadia Financial Group
Vancouver, Canada
IT Infrastructure and Operations Manager
Apr 2011 – Jul 2015
- Managed core banking network stability and database administration teams across 18 regional branch offices.
- Spearheaded corporate network segmentation project following PCI DSS compliance overhaul.
- Oversaw disaster recovery testing and business continuity program updates across primary and secondary colocation sites.
Education
Simon Fraser University
Master of Business Administration · Business Administration · Vancouver, Canada · Dean's Honour List · Sep 1999 – May 2001
Concentration in Management Information Systems and Strategic Technology Leadership.
University of British Columbia
Bachelor of Science · Computer Science · Vancouver, Canada · First Class Honours · Sep 1988 – May 1992
Focus on Distributed Computing Systems and Network Architecture.
Strategic Initiatives
Enterprise Supply Chain Systems Transformation
Jan 2022 – Nov 2023
- Orchestrated the consolidation and transition of disparate regional dispatch software into a unified, secure cloud-native ERP platform.
- Managed vendor selection, executive steering committees, and change management initiatives across 350 operational end users.
Port Operations Business Continuity Framework
Apr 2017 – Sep 2018
- Designed a resilient secondary data centre failover model with automated failover testing protocols, reducing recovery time objective from 8 hours to 25 minutes.
Core Competencies
IT Strategic Planning
Enterprise Architecture
IT Governance & Compliance
Vendor & Contract Management
Cybersecurity & Risk Management
Cloud Migration
Disaster Recovery & Business Continuity
Capital & Operating Budgeting
Cross-Functional Team Leadership
ITSM / ITIL Frameworks
Languages
English
C2
French
B2
Certifications
Certified Information Security Manager (CISM)
ISACA · May 2018
Project Management Professional (PMP)
Project Management Institute · Nov 2016
ITIL v3 Expert
AXELOS · Apr 2014
Community Leadership
Pacific Technology Mentorship Alliance
Vancouver, Canada · Jan 2019 – Present
- Leadership Mentor
- Mentor early-career and mid-level women in technology fields on career progression, executive stakeholder management, and technical leadership.