REA Group appoints technology executive

REA Group has announced that it has appointed Chris Venter to the role of chief technology officer.

Mr Venter is currently the GM, Australia business transformation technology at ANZ.

He will begin his role as a member of REA’s executive leadership team at the end of June, according to REA Group.

Mr Venter has replaced Tomas Varsavsky in the role, who departed REA Group after almost 11 years to join Catch.com.au as chief product and technology officer.

In his role (where he will report to REA Group CEO Owen Wilson), Mr Venter will lead REA’s global technology strategy and development, with a focus on driving improvement across the platform experience, data foundations and REA’s operating model, REA Group said.

It added that Mr Venter will also lead REA’s capability building, talent and growth agenda across the entire technology community.

The group noted that the incoming CTO has over 25 years of global experience and has held a number of technology and digital leadership roles at ANZ.

These include general manager of Omnichannel (where he was responsible for delivery and operational support of ANZ’s Omnichannel digital platforms), new ways of working technology transformation head, and general manager of consumer digital technology.

He has also previously held global technology consulting roles for Accenture and Deloitte.

Commenting on Mr Venter’s appointment, Mr Wilson said: “REA’s technology capabilities have always been a point of competitive differentiation, so we are delighted to have someone of Chris’ calibre joining our team to build on these strong foundations.

“Chris’ deep technology expertise spans critical capabilities, including agile delivery, technology transformation and scaling with impact, which will support our strategic ambitions and contribute to REA’s future growth and business efficiencies.”

Mr Venter spoke of his appointment as well, stating: “REA has such an exciting future, and I’m thrilled to be joining a company that has consistently been at the forefront of innovation since inception and one that I have admired for many years.

“I’m looking forward to working with some of the brightest minds in the industry to leverage new and existing technologies to continue to improve and differentiate REA’s customer and consumer experiences, as well as to increase speed and efficiency to market.”

Mr Venter’s appointment has followed the REA Group’s appointment of former CoreLogic executive Kris Matthews to the role of chief product, data, and insights officer within its residential property data analytics and automated valuations business, PropTrack.

This appointment followed the rebranding of PropTrack, which was previously known as Hometrack.

[Related: REA Group appoints data officer at PropTrack]

Malavika Santhebennur is the features editor on the mortgages titles at Momentum Media.

Before joining the team in 2019, Malavika held roles with Money Management and Benchmark Media. She has been writing about financial services for the past six years.