Citi snags former eBay chief data officer Zoher Karu

CITI on Tuesday said it has appointed former eBay chief data officer Zoher Karu as the head of Asia-Pacific data and analytics.

Under this new role, Mr Karu will report directly to the bank's Asia-Pacific head of consumer banking, Anand Selva. Among other things, he will "be responsible for driving the use of data to deliver customer value and business growth" in 17 markets, Citi said.

BT understands that Mr Karu's appointment marks the bank's first Big Data role within its consumer banking unit.

Mr Karu joined eBay in 2013 as a member of the firm's executive team, originally as its first vice-president of customer optimisation and data. Prior to eBay, he was vice-president of marketing analytics and insight at retailer Sears Holdings.

Commenting on Mr Karu's appointment, Mr Selva said: "Zoher's appointment to this role is a key part of our digital transformation and overall strategy. To be Asia's best digital bank, we need to offer remarkable client experiences that set us apart and that are locally relevant to our target customers."

According to the Financial Times, Citi has also made several other technology hires. In June, it appointed Shinjini Kumar to head retail operations in India. Ms Kumar was previously the chief executive at Paytm, an Indian payments and e-commerce company. Citi also hired employees from PayPal and Amazon to its financial technology operations Citi FinTech, a unit of Citigroup focused on improving mobile banking experiences.