Dive Brief:
- Chobani appointed IT executive Tom Cullen as its new CIO, the company said Monday. Cullen will report to president and COO Kevin Burns.
- Cullen, who most recently served as CIO for gaming peripheral maker Corsair, brings more than two decades of IT leadership experience to the food company, known for its namesake Greek yogurt brand. The executive held CIO roles at JUUL Labs, Driscoll's and Peet's Coffee & Tea.
- Cullen replaced Parag Agrawal, who was appointed last week as the CIO of retail brand Fanatics after nearly a decade at Chobani. Agrawal led a multiyear transformation campaign focused on expanding Chobani’s digital capabilities.
Dive Insight:
Big brands count on tech to power the business, as digital connects shoppers with products at scale.
When Chobani kicked off the multiyear overhaul of its underlying IT in 2018, Agrawal pushed to move beyond digital transformation and toward a broader business change that included a new ERP system, analytics dashboard and digitized financial reports.
“We made sure right from day one that the business was involved as much as it can be,” Agrawal told CIO Dive earlier this year. “On top of that, we believed in telling the whole organization the big picture, and not just a siloed view of it.”
Now, Cullen will help Chobani design and execute best-in-class information systems and technological capabilities, the company said.
Chobani last year withdrew its bid to go public at a reported valuation of $10 billion, but CEO Hamdi Ulukaya told CNN in May he remained open to the idea, citing year-over-year sales growth between 20% and 25%.
Chobani did not provide additional details regarding the scope of Cullen's role.
