Former Westpac Consumer CIO to be Telstra's new CIO

Stuart Corner
Monday, 11 October 2010 13:15

IT Industry - Listed Tech

Telstra has appointed Patrick Eltridge, currently with Standard Chartered Bank in Singapore and formerly CIO, Consumer Financial Services of Westpac, as its new CIO.

In an email to staff, Telstra COO Michael Rocca, said: "Patrick is ideally suited for Telstra's CIO role as his wide experience in the banking sector includes managing significant system changes, performing in a global architectural role and operating in a customer facing business unit.

Eltridge (who can be seen interviewed on banking technology at the BankTech 2008 conference) replaces Ashley Lazaro who has been acting in the role since the departure of the previous incumbent, John McInerney, in June this year  (he had been on leave since April). Lazaro will take on a new role as executive director, IT Infrastructure and Services.

Rocca said: "Patrick's deep knowledge and support of a customer led business with a particular focus on online customer experiences and workforce productivity will add significant value to the position'¦We all know customers increasingly want access to services and content across multiple devices, supported by a simple and reliable experience. Simpler systems that support our people to better serve our customers are a critical part of our strategy and future success."

Rocca added that Eltridge's appointment would "complement recent organisational changes which better integrate our network and information technology expertise, and position ourselves to meet customer demands of the future.

These changes included the establishment of two new lines of business - Architecture, Online & Media and Networks & Access Technologies and brought the end-to-end accountability for the design and delivery of IT infrastructure and data centres into IT to make the most of virtualisation and cloud services.

Rocca said: "We now have a truly integrated approach to the development, delivery and management of our content and online services. The seamless delivery of applications, online and media services across all technologies will drive customer take-up and help us win in the market.

"The CIO role is crucial to delivering key elements of our strategy and fast tracking our success. Within IT we will continue to drive the agenda of our customer-centric transition - building out our online capability, giving our front of house business units the tools they require to serve our customers and supporting our company wide efforts to improve our productivity. Patrick will lead the IT team to deliver on this significant program of work."