Ex-Dick Smith CIO lands at Airtasker

Former Dick Smith chief information officer Paul Keen has landed a role as the chief technology officer for online outsourced tasks marketplace Airtasker following his recent departure from the retailer.

Keen was one of around 3000 employees affected by the closure of Dick Smith late last month after the receivers appointed to the business opted to shut it down after failing to find a buyer.

The company had gone into voluntary administration in early January owing $390 million to creditors after its line of credit was cut off following poor Christmas sales.

The February closure of the business meant the departure of 2890 staff across Australia and New Zealand and the closure of 363 stores. Dick Smith's online business has since been snapped up by online retailer Kogan.

Sign up to the iTnews newsletter to keep on top of breaking news

During his time at Dick Smith, Keen - a three-time iTnews Benchmark Award finalist - undertook a creative transformation of the company's legacy systems "by stealth", aimed at providing the flexibility the then-growing business needed without requiring a full rip and replace.

He also instigated a campaign for the introduction of industry-wide standards for the exchange of data in the online retail industry, which has seen both international and local big-name retailers jump on board.

Keen, who had spent two-and-a-half years leading IT for the retailer, started his new role this week.

Sydney-based Airtasker was founded in 2012 and has raised around $10 million to date.

The site gives users the opportunity to outsource everyday tasks for a fee to a community of 480,000 members who bid to take on the task.

Tasks can be everything from shopping or ironing to building a website. Airtasker takes a 15 percent cut of completed jobs.

Prior to joining Dick Smith in late 2013, Keen worked a brief stint at Salmat Digital as the head of software development, and before that he spent almost two years as the CIO of RedBalloon.

He has also had almost two years experience at Westfield as its ecommerce and digital project manager, and led the technical team for high-traffic Ninemsn for around three years.

Keen was unavailable for comment at the time of writing.