Virgin Australia appoints its first CIO

Virgin Australia has appointed Lawrie Turner as its new CIO but the company will not be appointing him to its board.

A Virgin Australia spokesperson said a seat is not being made available to Turner and could not comment whether he will have a place on the board in the future.

“We already have our board members,” said the spokesperson. “Our CFO [Sankar Narayan], who Lawrie will answer to, is his direct, first port of call.”

CIOs don’t get a seat at the top table: study.

The spokesperson said that Turner will play a crucial role in managing Virgin Australia’s new Sabre booking and check-in system that it transitioned to last month.

Last month, the airline reported problems with its new Sabre system, which led to delays for passengers.

Turner worked with Sabre Holdings 1998 to 2000 and since then has held CIO roles with Aurizon, Optus and David Jones. He has about eight-and-a-half years’ experience in the CIO role.

Virgin Australia’s head of information services, Segar Reddy, will be leaving the airline to take up his own consultancy business, according to the spokesperson.

Lawrie will commence his role with the airline on 25 February.

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