Woolies hires another former Westpac CIO

Paul Spiteri.

Paul Spiteri, who served as Westpac's acting CIO for most of 2014, has joined supermarket giant Woolworths and will report into his former boss and fellow ex-Westpac CIO Clive Whincup.

Spiteri acted in the role of Westpac CIO from February this year up until the bank’s new CIO Dave Curran began his role last month.

Spiteri announced his resignation from a long career with the bank in July, and today revealed he had been appointed as Woolworths’ new head of service delivery applications.

His new role will see him once again work under former Westpac CIO Clive Whincup, who left the bank for Woolworths in February after almost three years as Westpac’s IT chief.

“Paul has done a tremendous job in progressing our technology roadmap and providing stability and leadership to Westpac Group’s technology leadership team and community,” a Westpac spokesperson said when Spiteri announced his departure in July.

Prior to his stint as the acting CIO, Spiteri served as Westpac’s head of payments and shared services - a role now filled by Matt Brotherton.

During his time at Westpac, Spiteri worked in several senior technology roles and on projects aimed at reducing the cost of delivering IT, including appointing a panel of four Indian IT offshoring partners.

His appointment to Woolworths is one of a long line of Westpac IT staff that have headed west to join Woolworths: 

• The aforementioned Clive Whincup, who moved from his role as Westpac CIO to Woolworths CIO in February;
• Damon Rees, who had acted in the role of CIO at Woolworths until Whincup's appointment, moved to the retail giant in 2012 after spending 13 years at Westpac, with his last role as its head of integrated delivery. Rees moved back into the banking sector midway through this year after being named Macquarie Bank's new chief digital officer.
• The executive now in charge of Woolworths' push into adopting Google enterprise technologies under its Leap project, Deon Ludick, spent almost ten years at Westpac before he moved to the retailer in March last year.
• Woolworths' current head of technology, TIm Batten, spent almost seven years as Westpac's head of online technology before he departed the bank for the retailer in 2012.

Spiteri and Woolworths have been contacted for comment.