Yarra Valley Water CIO departs for auto parts leader

Yarra Valley Water CIO Leigh Berrell has departed from the utility for a role at auto parts company Bapcor.

Berrell has spent more than five years with Melbourne’s largest retail water utility, during which he insourced many IT services and raised staff satisfaction with IT from 30 per cent to 86 per cent.

Berrell introduced Agile working and significantly sped up the software release cycle. Reliability of existing systems has more than tripled in the last few years. In the last year, the group’s IT spend came in 13 per cent below budget and its project portfolio is expected to deliver 190 per cent return on investment.

Managing director Pat McCafferty said that Berrell would be sorely missed.

Leigh Berrell

“Leigh is never shy to back away from a challenge,” McCafferty said. “Thanks to Leigh we have established our IT teams to be cross-functional and to hold responsibility for delivering both exceptional operational outcomes and the delivery of new innovative products and services. In all projects within Leigh’s area the principle focus is to identify the right business stakeholders to guide the development of these systems.

“We wish him all the best, but he will be sorely missed.”

Last week, Leigh was named in CIO Australia’s inaugural CIO50 list, which recognises Australia’s 50 most innovative and effective chief information officers who are influencing change across their organisations. Berrell was named in the top ten of the nation’s best CIOs.

“This recognition reflects the tremendous effort of Yarra Valley Water’s IT team and their business partners over the last few years,” Berrell said. “It has been my privilege to lead the team and I’m in awe of what they have achieved.”

Berrell will be joining Bapcor, Australia’s largest listed auto parts company, as general manager, group information services. The company encompasses a number of trade, retail and service brands including Burson Auto Parts, Autobarn, Midas, ABS and Precision automotive equipment.

He commences the new role next week.