Expanding the influence of Canada’s CIOs\” />

Surani Adamesco, senior vice president of information technology at SiriusXM Canada (left), on a panel at the CIO Association of Canada’s Peer Forum in Ottawa. – Photo by Jennifer Friesen, Digital Journal
The centre of gravity in Canadian leadership is moving. AI, cybersecurity, data use, and digital trust now shape capital allocation, partnerships, and brand promises. The question is no longer who owns the technology. It is who can explain the trade-offs well enough that a board can make the right call.

Digital Journal’s national innovation research shows only 40% of employees view their company as innovative, and just 5% see it as a leader. The outliers get there by making innovation a leadership responsibility, not a side project. That is where today’s CIOs are expanding their influence.

CIOs are expected to explain how a decision will affect revenue, reputation, and regulatory risk in the same breath. They must do it in language that directors can use to make calls on capital, partnerships, and strategy.

The gap between those expectations and the traditional scope of IT leadership is where careers stall, credibility erodes, and organizational risk grows. Closing that gap requires more than technical depth. It calls for the ability to operate inside the rhythms and rules of governance, where influence depends on framing decisions for people who see the whole enterprise, not just the technology function.

Earning the CIO.D designation

For many CIOs, bridging the gap between technical expertise and governance fluency requires structured learning. 

The CIO.D program, offered by the CIO Association of Canada and the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management, brings senior technology leaders together to strengthen governance, strategy, and boardroom readiness. 

Surani Adamesco joined the first cohort, completing faculty-led modules, peer discussions, and case studies that linked concepts like corporate finance, risk management, and board governance to real-world decisions.

“You cannot just take the information, put it in your back pocket and say, ‘I will use this when I need it.’ You have to be deliberate about it. It has to be part of your day-to-day and part of your planning for the future,” says Adamesco, senior vice president of IT at SiriusXM Canada.

The experience reshaped how Adamesco prepares for major decisions. Now, she says, each choice is weighed through governance, financial, and reputational lenses before she steps into the boardroom.

“You start to look at decisions differently. You think about the governance aspect, the financial aspect, the reputational aspect, and you put them together before you go into the room.”

That mindset shift extended into unexpected areas. One session on vendor negotiations offered a lesson she applied immediately.

“Where are they in their sales life cycle, who are you dealing with at that company and how do you need to communicate with them?” she said. “That’s something I brought back and said, ‘Here’s something that we should be doing when we are negotiating with vendors’.”Surani Adamesco, senior vice president of information technology at SiriusXM Canada. – Photo by Jennifer Friesen, Digital Journal

From self-assessment to stronger connections

For Adamesco, the program became a structured way to interrogate her own leadership approach.

“One of the things that I question all the time is am I leading correctly? Have I got the big picture correctly? It’s about how you put all of these things together.”

She says the process encouraged her to think differently about the conversations she has with boards and executives.

“Now it is less focused on that and more focused on how are we doing things, what are we doing and what does that mean… It’s far more conversational and less ceremonial.”

The experience also reinforced the importance of a strong CIO community that can act as both sounding board and safety net.

Beyond the curriculum, Adamesco says the program built a sense of community that can feel like it’s missing in technology leadership. 

“One of the things that I think technology leaders need more of is the sense of community to share the good and the bad in order to be able to future-proof their own organizations but also help them get out of a tricky or a messy situation they’re in,” she says.

That network is not just about moral support. It is a source of practical expertise that can accelerate decision-making when new challenges emerge.

“Technology is evolving so fast and not one of us can know everything about everything so having somebody else who might be a better expert that we can tap on and say can I have a quick coffee chat and pick your brain on something.”

For Adamesco, the designation is a credential, but it also represents the confidence to influence at the highest level, the skills to connect technology and business priorities, and a network of peers to navigate challenges together.

This article is part of a Digital Journal series examining the CIO.D designation through interviews with program faculty, CIOCAN leadership, and recent graduates. Learn more about the Rotman-CIOCAN CIO Executive Leadership Program.