Officeworks appoints its first CIO

Officeworks has appointed Nikala Busse as its first chief information officer.

The appointment follows the departure of Damien Ballesty, who had held the role of general manager of technology, for almost three-and-a-half years.

Ballesty left for Chemist Warehouse to take on the CIO role, beginning in February next year.

Busse’s remit as CIO covers a wide-reaching portfolio including Officeworks IT business operations, team member experience applications, platforms and networking, IT Print & Create, enterprise architecture, digital product and IT security and risk compliance.

Busse said she was “excited to return to retail” and work “in a business that is committed to its customers and team members.” 

“Already it's evident we have an innovative technology team with plenty of opportunity ahead of us," she said in a statement.

“I’m excited to work with the team on our future plans and to continue to develop our capability and culture, deliver on some significant tech-enabled improvements for our customers, team members and operational processes, and continue to build our data, digital and ecommerce capabilities.”

Officeworks managing director Sarah Hunter cited Busse’s past digital experience, which includes leading “digital transformation projects for large, complex, consumer-facing organisations to address future business needs.”

“[This] will play an important role in helping us make bigger things happen for our team and customers with strategic growth initiatives.”

Busse joined from Transurban where she held the general manager of customer platforms role for just over a year.

Prior to this Busse held senior IT roles across Coles as well as in the finance industry.

Coles' head of information security also shifts

Eshan Dissanayake also joined Officeworks as head of IT security risk and compliance, reporting to Busse.

Dissanayake was previously the head of information security at Coles for over seven-and-a-half years, and spent 14 years with the retailer in total.

On LinkedIn, Dissanayake wrote that “it was time to say goodbye to Coles” and that he was "excited to join Nikala Busse and her team delivering on Officeworks' core strategies”.