TITLE: John Sullivan to join Vicinity Centres as Chief Technology Officer

Vicinity Centres (Vicinity) today announced that John Sullivan will join as Chief Technology Officer (CTO) next month, as part of its strategy to become a leader in retail digital operations.

John will begin at Vicinity on 4 April reporting into the Executive General Manager of Business Development, David Marcun, and will be based in Melbourne. He joins Vicinity from MYOB where he was Head of Delivery.

Executive General Manager Digital, Marketing, People & Culture, Simone Carroll said John is a passionate IT leader and well-known thought leader in the industry, with more than 30 years' experience in technology and digital. John has held a range of senior roles at Object Consulting, Thoughtworks, and with online business HOOROO, and Sensis where he was instrumental in adopting Agile and Lean techniques.

In this newly-established role, John will have responsibility for further developing Vicinity's technology strategy and leading new future-focused technology initiatives. A key focus of the CTO will be the development and application of new technologies across the shopping centre 'ecosystem' to revolutionise customer experience.

'We are thrilled to welcome John into our team,' Ms Carroll said.

'Together with the appointment of Andrew Wilkinson as Head of Digital in December last year, John's appointment highlights our sharpened focus on leveraging digital to elevate the consumer and retailer experience in our centres, our move to embed innovation in everything we do and the importance we place on technology to transform our organisation to compete in the digital age.

'Technology is reimagining our business, the industry at large, and our relationship with our retailers and our customers. John's leadership and deep experience in technology make him ideally suited to oversee the strategic shift that we want to make.

'John joins the team of 'pureplay' online experts and thought leaders that we are rapidly assembling at Vicinity, with a keen focus on digitising retail operations and the important role of bricks and mortar and shopping centres in an omni-channel environment,' Ms Carroll said.

Ms Carroll said with a revolutionised consumer in the driver's seat, the role of shopping centres was transforming dramatically from a product to an experience destination. As part of Vicinity's focus on digital 2 of 2 and data, it had been growing its internal data and analytics capability with a dedicated team and supporting technologies, to achieve better customer and retailer outcomes.

'As well as driving obvious business efficiencies, data insights can significantly strengthen customer and retailer relationships and create brand loyalty, ultimately providing a more intuitive shopper experience.

'Given the volume of people that come through our centres everyday it makes sense that we capture data for both our retailers and the end consumer experience. There's still much more to do but it's a key focus for us, and getting this team into place will really help us push our agenda forward quickly,' Ms Carroll said

For further information please contact:

Kat Rellos
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Ali O'Shea
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