I choose to move to New Zealand permanently, after falling in love with Aotearoa and the Countdown team. During this time I learnt that I was no longer the Head of Technology, that my role was to run one of the largest retailers in New Zealand, as part of a conscious and empowering executive team. Technology was what I did, not who I was. We Technology Leaders do not always make this transition!A highlight of what Technology team helped deliver to Countdown:-Deployment of Group SAP Retail programme--NZ -Creation of a Program Office with business focused governance (thank you Karen Lusis).-New Point of Sale deployment to over 180 supermarkets (Go Les)-New network in all supermarkets - in progress (Thiagu, Nameeta, Rakesh, Howard and the wider Spark Team)-New in house Labour Management system for all supermarkets (Richard, John and amazing Devs)-New premise for the Data Centre and DR program (Suresh, Thiagu, Kane Rhys and Rakesh)-Upgrade of support office compute (Suresh, Graeme, Vanita, Kane and so many more)-Internal acquisition of customer facing Customer Contact Centre - 116 seats (Carmel, Jenny, then Rittu and the most Conscious Leaders I have met)-Telecommunications contract nenegotiation-Cloud End User Compute - Google Apps to all of business-Agile transformation for all teams working with our digital systems (Cheer squad to Sally Copland and Karen Lusis)-Agile transformation of the IT team-Countdown Graduate programme ambassador to multiple Universities-Conscious and Growth Mindset leadership within IT-Succession at IT Executive layer (Congratulations Steve James, Karen Lusis and Tim Glover)

Woolworths IT brand had dropped to a consistent low point. The IT Support team became the focal point to exercise cultural change and lead a new customer service strategy to win back advocacy across the Group. My role was to create a new brand and implement change to improve our reputation within the business.-Operation Service level improvement-Rebranding of IT Support “#Love the experience”-Implementation of customer facing IT team for 3000 user support office-Cultural change program for IT Support Leadership-Management of offshore support contracts (India)

I loved working with MD Debra Singh and the Exec team during a time of structural change in the consumer electronics market. It was and executive team that built trust, compassion and a sense of fun within their own team and the wider business. The IT team delivered numerous tech improvements to stores on a small budget, grew to love their role as a team that supported the stores, with many moving into the wider Woolies Group to further their careers.Whilst not a pleasure,  I was involved in the divestment of the business from Woolies, and had accountability for the decoupling of the systems post the sales process.  Years later, it unfolded to be a sad story for that wonderful team that loved their stores and customers.

I was seconded to role from Woolworths Group IT. This was an enormous program of change. Every system was impacted. Approx 100 million dollar was the budget to integrate Woolworths core systems and the decommissioning legacy NZ systems. Michael Luscombe, the Woolworths CEO, commented that program was like running a marathon during open heart surgery.-Integration of all core legacy systems into Woolworths - technical execution-New store labour management system -Talent retention of key institutional knowledge-Operational support - during major change or ERP, POS front end and Back end-Decommissioning of legacy systems -IT Business review - efficiency gains -Implementation of new organisational structure