Qantas CISO Jeffrey Choi joins Coles

Qantas CISO Jeffrey Choi has left the airline for a position as Coles Group’s general manager of cyber security and identity.

Jeffrey Choi.
Coles Group

Choi follows Qantas CIO Sam Charmand and several other senior executives who departed the airline during the turbulent year that saw its share price plummet amid the threat of regulatory action for allegedly selling already-cancelled flights.

In a LinkedIn post in December, Charmand revealed his new role as steel maker BlueScope’s global chief digital and information officer. 

Choi, meanwhile, left the airline after almost six-and-a-half years as group CISO.

iTnews understands that Matt Biber - head of Qantas’ group cyber security centre - has been tapped as acting CISO while the airline looks for a permanent replacement for Choi. 

Choi’s new gig was announced today in a Coles Group's LinkedIn post.

“Jeffrey joins us from Qantas where he has been the group chief Information security officer for the last six years," the supermarket operator said.

“He was responsible for setting up the whole of business security and risk approach, working closely with the executive team and board to set the strategy, build resilience and protect their network and assets from complex attacks, and sophisticated threats pursuing Australian businesses."

A Coles spokesperson said it could not, at this time of year, tell iTnews if general manager of cyber security and identity is a newly created position or if a senior member of its identity or security team had recently vacated the portfolio. 

Choi joined Qantas in 2015 as its head of cyber security and IT infrastructure for fintech, ventures and loyalty. He was promoted to CISO two years later.

Before that, he was News Corp's CISO from 2012 to 2015. He has held other senior security roles at Westpac, Coca Cola Amatil and Ericsson.

Qantas restructured the reporting line for technology operations in June last year, bringing it under the watch of chief customer and digital officer Catriona Larritt.