Home Depot Appoints Former eBay and Wal-Mart CTO as its New CIO

Home Depot has finally found a replacement for Bob DeRodes, who announced his decision to retire from the home improvement retailer last April. Home Depot reported today that it hired an eBay executive to serve as its new EVP and CIO. Matt Carey most recently served as eBay’s SVP and CTO. In his new role with Home Depot, which he starts on Monday, September 8, Carey reports to Home Depot Chairman and CEO Frank Blake. DeRodes will remain with Home Depot until Carey’s transition into the company is complete.

Prior to eBay, Carey worked for Wal-Mart for more than 20 years. He started out as a programmer in 1985 and ended up as Wal-Mart’s SVP and CTO. Carey’s accomplishments at Wal-Mart include managing the rollout of the company’s radio frequency infrastructure, large mainframe systems and data warehouse. He was also involved in the development and integration of walmart.com and samsclub.com.

It’s interesting that Home Depot chose to find a CIO with deep retail industry experience considering that DeRodes, when he joined Home Depot in 2002, had no prior retail experience. (DeRodes had previously worked for Delta Airlines.) It’s also interesting that Home Depot chose someone with a hard core technology background to serve as its new CIO.