Target (TGT) has turned to a General Motors (GM) executive to oversee its efforts to prevent another data breach like the one in 2013 that has cost the discount retailer hundreds of millions in sales and led to a senior management shakeup.
The company said on Tuesday that Brad Maiorino would start his new job as Chief Information Security Officer next week, and be responsible for Target’s information security and technology risk strategy. He most recently held a similar jobs at GM, and before that at General Electric (GE).
His boss, high-profile information technology consultant Bob DeRodes, was named Chief Information Officer in April, soon after Target’s previous CIO resigned in March in the aftermath of the data breach that came to light at the height of the holiday season. The data breach, the largest ever to hit a retailer, included the theft of about 40 million credit and debit card records and 70 million other records of customer details. It ultimately also cost former CEO Gregg Steinhafel his job. Starting in early 2015, all of Target’s store-branded credit and debit cards will be have MasterCard’s chip-and-PIN (personal identification number) technology.
The move is the latest effort by the third-largest U.S. retailer to overhaul its team of top tech executives, a process begun in March. It is still looking for a chief compliance officer.
DeRodes cited Maiorino’s stints at GM and GE in a statement, saying he “is widely recognized as one of the nation’s top leaders in the complex, evolving areas of information security and risk.”