Two high-level IT appointments have been unveiled this week at big UK retailers.
At Dixons, Iain Andrew is to be appointed chief information officer, following the retirement of the group's outgoing information systems director Damian Norton.
Meanwhile, Peter Federico has joined B&Q as director of business services.
The appointment at Dixons is something of a sea change for Andrew. He joins the company from Britannia Airways, where he filled the position of IT and change director. Andrew has held a number of airline-related roles, including non-executive director at the ill-fated National Air Traffic Services, which was dogged by poorly performing systems throughout the late 1990s.
Andrew said: 'The Dixons Group has a reputation for being a technological leader.
I intend to develop this position to our advantage.
'We operate in 12 countries and have more than 33,000 employees, so my role will be challenging in scale as well as scope.'
Federico, who was formerly IT director at Boots, is in charge of support and exploi-tation of operational applications and systems at B&Q. He explained that a large part of his new job is focused on squeezing efficiencies out of existing systems, as well as investigating how they can be used to create new avenues of business advantage with only minimal system upgrades.
He will report to Roderick Anguin, B&Q's IT director.
'There is a huge opportunity for bottom-up improvements,' he said. 'Delivering these opportunities through business services is an challenge.'
Federico left Boots last May when the company initiated an outsourcing contract with IBM. He was not replaced.
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