Realestate.com.au CIO quits

REA Group chief information officer Chris Vulovic has quit the online real estate specialist in the wake of the departure of its chief executive officer.

Departing REA Group CIO
Chris Vulovic

The company announced the executive's resignation in a statement this afternoon, with its new CEO Greg Ellis saying she had helped build REA Group, which operates the family of realestate.com.au websites, to the position it was in today. "On behalf of the company I thank her," he said.

REA said it had commenced the search for a new CIO, with Vulovic's resignation taking effect today. It said Vulovic would assist in a smooth transition of her responsibilities.

Vulovic had been one of Australia's highest-profile female CIOs. During her tenure as REA CIO, which lasted almost six years, she spoke out often about the sites under the company's umbrella and the challenges in growing the Web-based business markedly from a base of 2 million pages per day in 2003.

In the past several years Vulovic had focused particularly on growing REA's global platform as it expanded overseas without requiring significant additional head count.

The news comes just a month after REA unexpectedly terminated the contract of its long-term CEO, Simon Baker, despite a strong history of growing the business and months after renewing his contract earlier this year. The company has since appointed Ellis, a former Microsoft staffer, to the CEO role.