Scentre Group, which owns and operates Westfield shopping centres in Australia and New Zealand, has nabbed former Walt Disney Company senior tech exec Richard Webby as its new director, technology.
Webby, an Australian national, has come back to his homeland after spending the past 18 years working in the United States in various senior technology roles, most recently at Walt Disney as VP, guest experience technology.
He takes the technology reigns from Scentre’s current director, finance & investor relations, Andrew Clarke who gained responsibility for IT following the departure of Westfield’s director of information technology, Peter Bourke in 2014.
On his LinkedIn profile, Webby said he is leading all enterprise and consumer-facing technology and services including digital, centre/mall, enterprise applications, infrastructure, operations, enterprise architecture and cybersecurity.
Webby described himself as “technology evangelist for the organisation, ensuring operational excellence of technology delivery, impactful development around new technology platforms and innovation initiatives".
A Scentre spokesperson told CIO Australia that the organisation has been broadening and expanding its digital capabilities in-house. In 2016, the company created Westfield Retail Solutions to build on the work done by Westfield Labs, a global innovation hub created out of San Francisco in 2012.
Last year, the company also established OneMarket, a retail technology network for retailers, brands, venues and partners to collaborate, share data and implement new technologies like natural voice processing, AI and AR.
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