Telstra’s chief information officer and executive director digitisation John Romano has departed the telco, the company has confirmed. Romano has been with Telstra for close to 30 years, in a variety of technology and executive management roles, and took the dual CIO/CDO role in 2016. Romano’s last day at Telstra was March 9, the company said. “We will commence the search for a permanent replacement. Chief technology officer Hakan Eriksson, an accomplished leader during his time with Ericsson including as CEO Australia and New Zealand, will act as CIO in addition to his responsibilities,” a Telstra spokesperson said. Over the past year Romano has overseen a major digitisation program which has seen new cloud-based systems – including Salesforce and ServiceNow – being rolled out and legacy systems and applications decommissioned. Other initiatives, as reported bysister publicationComputerworld, have included replacing multiple customer notification systems with a single notification engine and the rollout of a revamped service status page that offers more granular detail about service outages and expected recovery times. He also oversaw the launch of a business focused mobile app mdash; Telstra Connect mdash; that offers tools for enterprise customers and Expert Finder, which helps customers directly contact a relevant Telstra expert. Romano also helped facilitate theadoption of agilemethodologies within the technology function. As of the end of last year more than 100 teams were using agile, with the expectation that 400 teams, some 5,000 staff, would be within a few years. Prior to taking the CIO role, Romano led the Telstra Property Group and was responsible for leading a national integrated and cost-effective network facilities and property strategy across the company. Romano replaced Erez Yarkoni who left the rolein October 2016, to return to his homeland, the United States. Related content brandpost Sponsored by Freshworks When your AI chatbots mess up AI ‘hallucinations’ present significant business risks, but new types of guardrails can keep them from doing serious damage By Paul Gillin Dec 08, 2023 4 mins Generative AI brandpost Sponsored by Dell New research: How IT leaders drive business benefits by accelerating device refresh strategies Security leaders have particular concerns that older devices are more vulnerable to increasingly sophisticated cyber attacks. By Laura McEwan Dec 08, 2023 3 mins Infrastructure Management case study Toyota transforms IT service desk with gen AI To help promote insourcing and quality control, Toyota Motor North America is leveraging generative AI for HR and IT service desk requests. By Thor Olavsrud Dec 08, 2023 7 mins Employee Experience Generative AI ICT Partners feature CSM certification: Costs, requirements, and all you need to know The Certified ScrumMaster (CSM) certification sets the standard for establishing Scrum theory, developing practical applications and rules, and leading teams and stakeholders through the development process. By Moira Alexander Dec 08, 2023 8 mins Certifications IT Skills Project Management Podcasts Videos Resources Events SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER From our editors straight to your inbox Get started by entering your email address below. Please enter a valid email address Subscribe