Coles Group’s chief technology officer John Cox and chief digital officer Ben Hassing are both leaving the grocery retailer in a technology leadership shake-up.
Cox – who joined Coles in 2021 from Australia Post – is set to leave in early 2025 “to pursue other opportunities,” Coles confirmed.
Hassing, meanwhile, will return to the United States next year; he came to Australia in May 2020 after a 16-year stint with US retail giant Walmart, both in its US and China operations.
Coles has already sourced a replacement for Cox.
Mike Sackman, a former CIO of UK retailers John Lewis, Waitrose, Argos and B&Q, has been named as the next Coles Group CTO.
He will relocate from the UK to take up the new role.
Sackman will “drive the next phase of the group’s technology transformation under the leadership of [Coles] chief executive Leah Weckert,” Coles said in a statement to iTnews.
“Technology sits at the heart of global retail transformation, enabling organisations like Coles to connect with and serve their customers in new and meaningful ways,” Sackman said in a statement.
“It is also playing an increasingly crucial role in enhancing the efficiency and resilience of retail supply chains.
“Coles has made significant strides in driving innovation, and I’m excited to work with such a forward-thinking team on the next phase of its journey.”
The company will start recruiting “soon” for a replacement CDO.
Under Cox’s leadership, Coles underwent a restructure to improve the “capability and scale” of its technology function, appointing six domain leads.
It went on to rebuild its supplier platform on Salesforce, implement an events-based architecture to power real-time intelligence in its stores and other parts of its operational footprint, upgrade its networks, and embrace AI.
Last month, the retailer struck a renewed five-year partnership with Microsoft, with a focus on cloud, AI and edge computing services.