Appointing a scale-up CIO for Early Settler

Early Settler is a privately owned retailer with a 35-year heritage, running a growing network of 65 stores across Australia and New Zealand alongside a fast-expanding eCommerce channel. After a sustained run of strong growth, the business set itself a clear target - double in size over the next five years.

To get there, thier CEO moved to strengthen the executive team, creating two new roles - Chief Retail Officer and Chief Information Officer. Early Settler engaged us to lead the search for both.

The CIO was the pivotal appointment. Doubling the business would rest on the technology, data and AI foundations this person built - and at the point of hire, those foundations didn't yet exist.

The Challenge

This was not a caretaker CIO role. The brief called for a leader who could uplift the function rather than maintain it - build the capability, structure and leadership from the ground up while the business kept growing around them. The requirements were specific:

• Experience across retail technology ecosystems - POS, ERP, inventory, eCommerce
• A proven ability to enable growth through technology and data
• A commercial mindset, aligning investment to measurable outcomes
• Comfort operating in a privately owned, mid-market environment
• The ability to build a function from a standing start

The harder requirement sat underneath all of these. The CIO had to be a genuine partner to the CEO and the leadership team, holding strategic ambition and hands-on execution at the same time - the kind of leader who takes a business from good to great rather than simply keeping the systems running.

Our Approach

We ran a targeted executive search across the Australian retail and consumer market, focusing on leaders who had delivered transformation in comparable environments. The search prioritised:

• CIOs and emerging leaders suited to a scale-up growth journey, not just a steady-state function
• A track record of pragmatic, outcome-driven transformation
• Depth of data capability, assessed in its own right rather than folded into general technology leadership
• Leadership style, values alignment and cultural fit, tested through a structured assessment process

We worked closely with the CEO throughout, staying aligned on both the technical capability and the broader leadership agenda the appointment had to serve.

The Outcome

We appointed a Chief Information Officer with a strong record in retail transformation and in building technology capability inside growth-focused businesses. The successful candidate brought end-to-end experience across core retail platforms and digital ecosystems, a demonstrated history of scaling technology functions, and a commercial, delivery-focused approach - matched to a leadership style aligned with Early Settler's values and its growth ambition.

For a privately owned business chasing scale, the CIO appointment carried more than the technology function. It set the foundation the next five years of growth would be built on, which is why the search came down to finding someone who could build capability from nothing while partnering at CEO level to drive it.