M&S CIO Darrell Stein to step down this summer
2010's Computing/BCS CIO of the Year spent eight years at retailer and helped to develop new e-commerce platform
Retail giant Marks & Spencer (M&S) has announced that its CIO Darrell Stein would be leaving the business this summer.
A spokesperson told Computing that Stein would be leaving the retailer where he has spent eight years, but that no other news in regards to a replacement or indeed the role of director of IT itself would be disclosed at this time.
In a statement, the spokesperson said that Stein's role had "significantly changed recently".
"Darrell developed our new e-commerce platform which has now been delivered," the spokesperson added.
Part of the reason for the switch was because Amazon was seen as a competitor to M&S.
"We went live with Amazon in 2007. The Marks & Spencer site is a veneer on top of the Amazon code. The site has helped to grow our business from $200-300m per year to close to $1bn per year, but it's not great for innovation," he said at the time.
"Amazon is a competitor of ours. So when all the technology you're basing your business on is owned by the competition, you're not in a very sound position strategically," he stated.
Stein was previously CIO at Vodafone UK, and also worked at professional services firm Ernst & Young as well as Mars.
As part of the announcement, M&S also confirmed that its director of property Clem Constantine would be leaving the business at the same time, and commended both Stein and Constantine for the "great job" they had done.
Stein scooped the CIO of the Year accolade at 2010's Computing/BCS IT Industry Awards.