Linfox hires former Coles CIO as IT boss

Logistics giant Linfox has hired former Coles chief information officer Conrad Harvey as its IT chief following the recent departure of Morgan Hurwitz.

Conrad Harvey

It will be Harvey's first CIO role since he left Coles in late 2014 as part of an outsourcing-based restructure. He had led the retailer's IT team for 10 years.

Immediately following his departure from Coles, Harvey started his own consultancy, Harvey Digital, working with start-ups in the digital space.

Mid-last year Harvey joined digital loyalty start-up Certanti as its managing director - a role he has now given up to join Linfox.

The IT executive also serves as a director on the board of Victorian shared services agency CenITex.

He joined Linfox as its chief information officer this week.

Harvey becomes the company's third CIO in two-and-a-half years; Hurwitz had joined in May 2014 after former IT chief John Ansley moved over to rival Toll.

iTnews understands Harvey has commenced a review of Linfox's IT environment to ascertain his program of work.

"The appointment of Conrad to the position of CIO will help Linfox to further advance its industry leading IT and proprietary software systems. We welcome Conrad to the Linfox team and look forward to his leadership in this area of our business," Linfox CEO Annette Carey said.

The logistics giant has been searching for a new CIO since August when Hurtwitz left the company.

Hurwitz's time in the role was marked, among other things, by an expansion of the company’s big data capabilities that included increased collection of driver data.

Linfox recently signed a deal with Monash University to access the institution's virtual reality, advanced analytics and systems modelling tools.