Bendigo and Adelaide Bank finds its next CISO

Bendigo and Adelaide Bank has appointed ANZ’s Gajan Ananthapavan as its new chief information security officer.

Ananthapavan spent the past four years as ANZ’s technology area lead for security operations, intelligence and influence.

He officially steps into the role on October 28, replacing Shannon Jurkovic who moved to the Australian Retirement Trust in June after three-and-a-half years as Bendigo’s CISO.

“Gajan brings more than two decades of cyber security, threat intelligence and strategy expertise and learnings to the bank," a Bendigo and Adelaide spokesperson told iTnews.

iTnews understands that ANZ intends to begin recruiting for Ananthapavan's replacement soon.

Ananthapavan is the third technology leadership appointment at Bendigo in two months.

In August, the bank’s CIO of over four-and-a-half years Andrew Cresp left, leading to the promotion of Nathalie Moss as acting CIO.

A month later, Xavier Shay, the chief executive of Bendigo’s neobank Up, was handed the additional title of chief digital officer, a newly created role.

The appointments come as the bank makes “significant progress on its transformation program”, carrying out an extensive cloud migration as well as investment in AI and new security measures.