Fred Laury - New Zealand-based Technology Leader & Digital Executive

After the strategic partnership between TAB New Zealand and Entain AU & NZ became effective on 1st June 2023, I continued to lead the Digital team in New Zealand to ensure a seamless integration/transition from a people perspective and to oversee the migration to Entain from a technology perspective.

I led the Digital team and was accountable for digital strategy and delivery of betting products and superior customer experience through digital channels.

Key accomplishments:
- Member of TAB NZ’s Executive Leadership Team which negotiated and concluded a strategic partnership between TAB New Zealand and global wagering operator Entain. This transformational partnership will greatly enhance the long-term viability of New Zealand racing and sport by delivering substantial uplifts in payments to racing codes and sporting organisations across 25 years, while also significantly stepping up harm minimisation & safer betting efforts to provide a superior & safe customer experience to Kiwi punters
- Significant CX improvements on mobile app, which resulted in a 11% YOY increase in the number of customers placing a bet through TAB NZ’s digital channels

I led the Platform Engineering team of Visa Spend Clarity for Enterprise (formerly known as Fraedom, acquired by Visa in 2018 and now part of Visa Business Solutions), a SaaS platform providing corporate credit card management products to many of the world’s premier banks, and was responsible for the definition, maintenance and successful implementation of the technology strategy and the delivery of Platform services to internal and external stakeholders.

Key accomplishments:
- Leading the platform integration of Fraedom into Visa, which culminated in Fraedom being fully integrated within Visa Business Solution
- Definition of a new Public Cloud strategy & associated execution roadmap, leveraging AWS as infrastructure provider for platform modernisation

I was responsible for the end-to-end lifecycle (from strategy through to 24x7 operations & support) of all Air New Zealand’s applications supporting the airline's Operations and Corporate business areas, i.e.:
- Operations Applications: Airports & Cargo, Flight & Connected Aircraft, Pilots & Crew and Engineering & Maintenance
- Corporate Applications: HR, People & Safety, Finance/Payroll, Supply Chain and Property

During my tenure, I led the team through turmoil and uncertain times as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, with no negative impact nor disruption to operations.

I was responsible for the strategy, delivery and day-to-day operation of a number of Digital products and services aimed at enhancing the customer and employee experiences, i.e.:
- Airports products: Front of House (valet parking/check-in/bag drop/lounges/boarding) and Back of House (bag reconciliation/ramp operations and cargo)
- Productivity products: Collaboration & Communication, Workplace Services/End-User Computing, Automation and Identity & Access Management

Key accomplishments:
- Strong focus on transforming the check-in experience by leveraging data insights and aligning customer experience across airports’ products (i.e., kiosks, bag drop); this resulted in significant CX improvements and for the first time, 100% self-service in one day in any of Air New Zealand port
- Significant improvements in On-Time Performance (OTP) by leveraging data insights and implementing an Artificial Intelligence (AI) proof-of-concept to analyse aircraft turnarounds in real time and offer predictive analysis to better manage turn and ground operations (link here)
- Significant increase in Cargo revenue in FY19 directly attributed to the implementation of predictive analytics
- 120,000 man-hours saved in FY19 across Air New Zealand through efficiency/productivity gain & process automation

As a member of Air New Zealand’s Digital Leadership Team responsible for bringing the airline’s Digital 2020 vision to life, I led the delivery of enterprise-wide technology strategy outcomes for Air New Zealand. During my tenure, the Technology team delivered significant outcomes across the following pillars:
- “Keeping the lights on” by ensuring reliable and effective operations of Air New Zealand’s IT infrastructure
- Reducing technical debt and reliance on legacy systems by simplifying the IT environment
- Accelerating the adoption of Cloud technology
- Architecting, building and operating agile, sustainable, secure and resilient digital platforms

Key accomplishments:
- Significant reduction in the number of high-severity incidents and open audit findings assigned to Technology
- Delivery of key platform & infrastructure migration projects resulting in the simplification of the IT environment and a reduction of the average age of the IT infrastructure
- Successful contract renegotiations with key software vendors and IT partners which, coupled with other efficiency gains in IT Operations, resulted in significant OPEX savings in FY18
- Development of a new Technology strategy for the airline (5-year outlook) with a strong emphasis on Digital platforms

As a Member of Air New Zealand’s Digital Leadership Team, I was responsible for the successful rollout of the airline’s cybersecurity strategy. I also led an ambitious transformation programme which resulted in a significant technology and infrastructure uplift, and delivered outstanding security benefits and a much-improved security posture.

Key accomplishment:
- Air New Zealand won the 2016 iSANZ ‘Best Security Project/Initiative’ Award for its Information Security transformation programme

I led the development and maintenance of Fonterra’s Enterprise Security Architecture and IT Risk Management framework.

I led the development of Telecom’s Enterprise Security Architecture & Framework, and provided internal consultancy services to various business units.