Aviva recruits former ASOS CIO Pete Marsden

Pete Marsden has joined insurance providers Aviva as Digital CIO. A spokesperson for Aviva confirmed to CIO UK: “Pete is responsible for leading the global delivery of technology to support the digital strategy for our Digital Business unit.”

Marsden was interim CIO at department store group House of Fraser who CIO UK revealed this week has recruited its third CIO this year. Julian Burnett, formerly of retailers John Lewis joined House of Fraser as its CIO.

Marsden was CIO for online fashion retailer ASOS until September 2014, having replaced previous CIO Dan West, who went on to lead technology at high street fashion store group New Look.

ASOS has had three CIOs since 2010 and currently has former Marks & Spencer IT leader Clifford Cohen at the head of its business technology leadership.

Aviva, like ASOS, has had a number of changes to its senior technology leadership in recent years. Marsden joins the UK based insurance firm once known as Norwich Union alongside Monique Shivanandan, the Group CIO who joined in April 2014 from financial services provider Capital One. In a CIO UK interview in March of this year Shivanandan told this title she was responsible for IT delivery, operations, portfolio, planning and strategy to 11 properties across the 16 countries that Aviva operates in.

Avivahave confirmed that Marsden will report to Group CIO Shivanandan in his role as Digital CIO.

In August 2014 Aviva hired Andrew Brem as its CDO, having been trading director with British Gas. Mark Hall, previously CIO of HMRC joined Aviva in October 2013 and remains Director of Global Operations. Hall joined Aviva to reform a partnership he had with Phil Pavitt, who had been CIO and Director General of Change at HMRC from September 2009 to December 2012 with Hall. Pavitt joined Aviva as Global IT Operations and Transformation Director and is now CIO of Specsavers, where he has been global CIO since June 2014.