CBA's chief data officer to switch to NAB

CBA's chief data officer Christian Nelissen is set to fill the vacant chief data officer role at rival 'big four' bank NAB.

Nelissen’s appointment was announced internally on Monday by NAB’s group executive for technology and enterprise operations Patrick Wright.

In a note to staff, sighted by iTnews, Wright said that Nelissen “will take on this critical role at an important time within NAB as we seek to accelerate our data and analytics capability and execute on our ambition to become a data-driven organisation.”

“Christian is a globally recognised leader in data and analytics and brings extensive expertise in the design and implementation of data and analytics functions within large and complex organisations,” Wright wrote.

Nelissen has been CBA’s chief data officer for two years. He will start with NAB in early November and be based in Sydney.

He will have a joint reporting line to both Wright and to Angela Mentis, who was appointed to a new group chief digital, data and analytics officer role last week.

NAB has been on the hunt for a chief data officer since Glenda Crisp left the role in April this year.

The bank temporarily split the role between two executives on an interim basis while it sought a permanent replacement.