Waitrose appoints former Argos CIO Mike Sackman as IT director

Waitrose has appointed former Argos CIO Mike Sackman as its new director of IT.

Sackman joined Waitrose as interim IT lead in early August and has now replaced IT director Cheryl Millington, who left at the end of the month.

Before that, Sackman was an executive board member and CIO at Argos for four years, where he helped transform the high street business into a digital leader.

In this role he was accountable for the IT strategy, delivery and operational assurance at Argos and ran a team of more than 1,000 IT professionals working on its multimillion pound IT investment.

Prior to his Argos role, Sackman was IT and business change director at pub and restaurant management company Mitchells & Butler, where he was responsible for technology strategy and IT change delivery and operation across an estate of 1,700 outlets.

Earlier in his career, Sackman spent six years as director of IT at B&Q and led change programmes across supply chain, retail operations and digital divisions. He also spent one year at Kingfisher as systems manager and was a software engineer and business systems manager at Safeway from 1989 to 2000.

Waitrose MD Rob Collins said Sackman’s track record in IT was key for the retailer.

“Mike has made a fantastic start to his time with us and his passion for retail and wealth of experience will be invaluable in the future.”