Fujitsu Australia CEO to head up global operations

UPDATE - Former Kaz MD Mike Foster takes the reigns as acting CEO.

Fujitsu’s Australian CEO Rod Vawdrey has moved up the ranks of the Japanese computing giant to become president of Fujitsu's global business group. 

Effective immediately, Vawdrey has stepped aside from his role as CEO of the Australian operations to take up the new role.

A spokesman for Fujitsu told iTnews that former Kaz managing director Mike Foster has been appointed acting CEO, but no formal process for seeking a permanent replacement for Vawdrey has been decided on.

Fujitsu made a very brief statement on Monday concerning the resignation of the current group president Richard Christou.

Christou was listed as one of Fujitsu's key executives.    

Fujitsu did not state what responsibilities would fall to Vawdrey under his new role, however Christou's LinkedIn profile described his former role Global Business role as responsible for all of Fujitsu's non-Japanese business.

As a corporate vice president Vawdrey joins a group of 12 that sit beneath the executive vice presidents of the Japanese computing giant.

Vawdrey has lead Fujitsu Australia -- one of Australia’s largest IT services firms -- since 2003. 

Under his leadership, Fujitsu Australia completed its AU$200 million acquisition Telstra’s IT services arm, KAZ, which had provided desktop services to the Department of Defense. The acquisition left it with a total headcount of 5,000.  

Fujitsu Australia had traditionally held data centre contracts with large state government agencies, such as the NSW Roads and Traffic Authority, and Western Australian Police.

More recently it has made large investments in data centres on the east and west coast of Australia in a bid to position itself as an enterprise cloud service provider.