Arcadia expands digital team with three senior hires
Topshop owner Arcadia has expanded its digital team with three senior appointments as it looks to accelerate its digital growth strategy.
Rafaele Petruzzo has been hired in the newly created role of group chief digital officer. His previous experience includes being chief transformation officer at Nets Group, chief digital and technology officer at Homeserve and group payments strategy director at Tesco. Other prior roles include chief digital officer at Barclays.
In his new position, he will work closely with Karl De Bruijn who recently joined Arcadia as chief information officer. De Bruijn has more than 20 years’ experience in digital transformations, most recently at Primark where he was IT transformation director. Prior to that, he was global IT director at Cath Kidston.
Petruzzo and De Bruijn will both be part of Arcadia’s executive team and will report to Arcadia chief executive Ian Grabiner.
In a final appointment, Simon Pakenham-Walsh has joined Arcadia as director of digital and retail technology. Reporting directly to De Bruijn, he previously worked for more than 20 years with Sainsbury’s where his last role was chief information officer for food. Prior to that, he was technology director for the supermarket’s digital and technology division.
Commenting on the appointments, Grabiner said: “I’m delighted to welcome Rafa, Karl and Simon to the group as we continue to drive forward our digital ambitions and boost our sales from online channels; a core pillar of our growth strategy. They are all extremely experienced in their fields and I am confident they will add significant value to the group.”
