update Aussie Home Loans has lost its second chief information officer in nine months, with Christopher Hatzidis leaving the mortgage specialist in March.
Hatzidis spent just five months at Aussie after he left a similar position at mortgage insurer Genworth in late October . The executive worked at Genworth for two years, following stints at the National Australia Bank and Australian Mortgage Securities.
In a telephone interview today, Hatzidis told ZDNet Australia he left the company to pursue an "interstate opportunity". He declined to reveal more details.
He said there was "no ill feelings" with the mortgage specialist and that he would definitely still be in the CIO role if the other opportunity had not arisen.
Hatzidis described the Aussie position as very much focused on contract management with various outsourcing providers, rather than a traditional CIO role. "It wasn't fully utilising my capabilities," he said.
Aussie's previous CIO Steve Lindsay left the company in June 2006 to work as the head of technology for Citibank's consumer operation.
A spokesperson for Aussie claimed the company was close to appointing a replacement for the vacant position.
When asked why the CIO left less than six months into the job, the spokesperson pointed out Aussie only had an in-house IT team of three people, with the majority of its technology work done by five or six outsourcers. They denied there were any major issues that had caused him to leave.
Aussie is a relatively small player (with over 1,000 staff) in the financial services market compared with huge corporates such as banks and superannuation giants. However, the company maintains a high profile Down Under due to its history as an innovator that drove a higher level of competition in home lending.
When Hatzidis joined Aussie, the group's chief executive John Symond praised the executive, saying he had the skills that would keep Aussie ahead of the pack.
"Aussie has always prided itself at being at the forefront of developing customer-oriented systems and Chris has the combination of IT experience and lateral thinking that will allow us to continue the industry leadership that our Mortgage Explorer platform has provided for us in recent years," Symond said.
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