ANZ taps Kmart for new head of cloud platforms

ANZ Banking Group has tapped Kmart’s head of platforms and data Sam Hallawell as its new head of cloud platforms.

Sam Hallawell.
LinkedIn

It is understood that Hallawell replaces Keith Ferguson, who moved to ANZx in February. Joel Heenan has been acting in the role since that time.

Hallawell, who was at Kmart for two years, announced his appointment as head of cloud platforms on Linkedin last night.

“Cloud adoption is a strategic corporate objective for ANZ and developing this capability further is critical for its success in the future,” Hallawell wrote.

“I’m delighted to continue my work with important partners such as AWS and Google to make business transformation, security and efficiency a reality for one of the most important FIs [financial institutions] in Australia.”

ANZ group executive, technology Gerard Florian told iTnews in May that the bank had been recruiting leaders experienced in cloud migration for the past couple of years, to support its plan to uplift “the majority” of its IT and application estate into the cloud within the next “three to five years.” 

In a statement to iTnews, Kmart Group chief information officer Brad Blyth thanked Hallawell "for his contribution at Kmart Group".

“Our head of platform engineering role is a critical part of our technology strategy and [we] will be looking to recruit globally in the new year,” Blyth added.

Hallawell joined Kmart to support the retailer's migration to AWS in 2020. This included establishing a cloud architecture team, developing cloud operations and security and implementing best practices governance.

Updated, 8.15pm: This article originally incorrectly identified who Hallawell replaced at ANZ. iTnews apologises for the error.