John Lewis hires Lloyds chief for digital transformation

The John Lewis Partnership has appointed its first chief transformation and technology officer, handing the role to Lloyds Banking Group chief Zak Mian as part of plans to drive the retail group’s five-year partnership plan.

Mian joins the partnership – which includes both John Lewis and Waitrose – next week and the company says this is first executive level appointment focused solely on transformation and technology.

He has been at Lloyds since 1989, joining as a business analyst and design lead. Over the years he held numerous technology roles and was most recently group transformation officer.

Mian’s role included leading the development of both IT and data architecture for the group, introducing new data management capabilities and identifying machine learning opportunities as well as delivering business and tech change across the group to drive customer experience and business performance improvements.

John Lewis Partnership chairman Sharon White said: “I’m delighted that Zak is joining the Partnership. He brings a wealth of experience and an impressive background in business transformation and has a strong sense of purpose, which make him a great fit.”

Mian added: “I’ve admired the Partnership and its purpose for a long time so I’m delighted to be joining. I’m really looking forward to helping shape an environment in which partners can do their best work, enable the transformation of our business through technology and deliver great experiences for our customers.”

Mian’s appointment follows the launch of a major recruitment drive by the partnership to bring on board more than 150 new tech and data staff.

The group has been recruiting for software engineer and delivery lead roles to help deliver customer-facing projects on both Waitrose and John Lewis websites to bring “innovation and expertise” across a range of technologies from software to cloud platform and data engineering.

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