Julia Zhu

A visionary and strategic IT leader.  Julia has a clear vision on enabling the enterprise to be competitive in the rapidly evolving digital economy by leveraging the advances and innovation in technology. A thought leader with a focus on building for the future, inspiring teams to deliver superior results and to make a real impact to the bottom line of the enterprise.

Julia is currently the Vice President of IT Strategy & Architecture at the LCBO where she is responsible for enabling the transformation of the business to compete in the digital age. The retail business is changing, and Julia is responsible for ensuring the technology building blocks are in place to enable the change and enhance the user experience. In a data driven world technology is critical to the success of any business with IT strategy and architecture at its core.

Julia has always exceeded expectations in all management positions she has held at the LCBO. Her most recent accomplishment has been the IT Lead for Ontario Cannabis Stores. Her vision of using a green field approach and adopting the strategy of Cloud First, Mobile First and Wireless First displayed her unique ability to quickly pivot from an inward thinking approach to an outward one to accomplish the goals of getting a brand-new company operational within record time. Her leadership skills and technical acumen were key to the overall success of the initiative.

Prior to her position at OCS, Julia enjoyed tremendous success in the newly created role of Director IT Digital. This was a first for the LCBO and it required someone who could provide leadership and technical skills in mapping a path forward in the new digital world. Julia took on the role with vigour and imagination. She led the e-commerce initiative to make beverage alcohol accessible over the web. She also led the development of internal and external mobile apps which made it easy for customers to shop with LCBO and employees to be more efficient and effective to help customers. Under Julia’s leadership the LCBO was one of the first major retailers in Canada to adopt Apple Pay; the ability to use your mobile device to make payments. It once again demonstrated Julia’s ability to leverage technology to enable key business goals.

Julia holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science and has attended many leadership programs both at the University of Toronto and University of Waterloo.