ANZ's plans to move more banking systems to the cloud has materialised in the replacement of chief information officer Scott Collary by Gerard Florian, the chief strategy officer of Dimension Data's cloud unit, in a more powerful position as group executive technology.
The new role will give Florian a direct reporting line to chief executive Shayne Elliott and a seat on the group executive committee. Collary, who was recruited from Citibank two years ago, will leave the bank later this month.
The appointment, alongside that of former Googler Maile Carnegie as group executive digital banking earlier, reflects the emphasis placed on the strategic application of technology by ANZ boss Elliott.
“Increasingly technology is redefining our business and our relationship with customers," says Elliott. "Gerard’s leadership skills and his background in technology including cloud computing make him ideally suited to oversee the strategic shift that we need to make.”
A member of the ANZ International Technology and Digital Business Advisory Panel established in 2015, Florian has spent the past five years building up Dimension Data's portfolio of cloud-enabled managed services.
In his new role, he will be charged with defining ANZ’s technology strategy and building and managing the group’s technology infrastructure.
In an interview posted on the bank's media platform BlueNotes, Florian said that banks need to push ahead with technology transformation projects and pinpointed the application of cloud-run services as a key enabler in this regard.