Shop Direct hires former Sky Betting and Gaming CTO
Shop Direct, the owner of Very.co.uk and Littlewoods.com, has appointed former Sky Betting and Gaming chief technology officer Andy Burton to the same position.
Due to take up his new role in May, Burton will report to Shop Direct chief executive Henry Birch and will be a member of the company’s executive board.
He will join Shop Direct from online gaming specialist The Stars Group where he became a director following the company’s merger with Sky Betting and Gaming in 2018. During his time at Sky Betting and Gaming, Burton was credited with transforming the technology team by increasing the headcount 40-fold to 700 and helping the company to become the UK’s largest online gaming operator by number of customers.
In his new position, Burton will lead Shop Direct’s 275-strong technology team.
In addition, Shop Direct has promoted Karl Wintrell, its former head of IT architecture and engineering, to the position of technology director. The promotion has seen Wintrell taking responsibility for data science, data strategy, and technology engineering and architecture within the business.
Meanwhile, Shop Direct’s interim chief technogy officer JM Domaingue is to become technology director with responsibility for technology operations, including information security. Both Wintrell and Domaingue will report to Burton and jointly oversee the technology team prior to his arrival.
Birch said: “Technology underpins everything we do at Shop Direct. It helps us deliver the online experience and end-to-end journey that keeps our customers coming back to Very and Littlewoods time and time again. It was always our ambition to appoint a heavy-hitting chief technology officer to our board and Andy certainly fits the bill.
“He has unrivalled experience of improving performance and customer experience through technology and new ways of working. With the support of Karl and JM, who are exceptional leaders, I am confident that Andy will continue to transform our technology capabilities, deliver the platforms we need to support our ongoing growth and be a vital member of our executive board.”
News of the appointments follows Shop Direct’s recent promotion of Sarah Willett to the position of group people director and the arrival of Tommy Jordan as financial services chief executive.
