Updated: Rob James new Vodafone Australia CIO

Rob James

Former Qantas CTO Rob James is the new chief information officer and director of business enablement at Vodafone Australia. 

James will start in September in this newly-created role at the telco and he is reporting to Vodafone’s local chief, Inaki Berroeta. Kevin Millroy continues as Vodafone’s chief technology officer.

James resigned as Qantas chief technology officer last month after less than two years in the role. He joined the airline in August 2017 after spending almost two years as CTO at betting company, William Hill.

James told CIO Australia that he will help boost Vodafone’s digital capability and assist in continuing to simplify the business while “pursuing more opportunities for Vodafone customers to interact through digital channels.”

Vodafone's Berroeta said an increased focus on digital technology led to the creation of the new role.

Berroeta said Vodafone's technology team would now operate as two functions - IT and networks. He said this will enable the team to focus exclusively on strategy and projects such as digital transformation.

He said James's experience in the technology sector would be a great addition to Vodafone's executive team.

"Rob's extensive experience in IT, digital delivery and technology innovation, architecture and strategy will be a key driver as we boost our digital capability. While we're continuing to simplify our business, we're looking to pursue more opportunities for our customers to interact with us through digital channels."

James placed number eight in CIO’s inaugural CIO50 list in 2016 when he was working at William Hill. During that time, he invested in new core platforms to modernise architecture to support rapid product development. He also restructured and refocused teams to deliver a more marketable product, which led to $60 million in revenue growth for the organisation.

Prior to William Hill, James was CTO at Echo Entertainment Group and CTO at Posse.

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Follow Byron Connolly on Twitter: @ByronConnolly