Air NZ tech boss jumps ship to Trade Me

Paolo Ragone. Photo / supplied

Trade Me has raided Air New Zealand's ranks to hire its new chief technology officer CTO, Paolo Ragone.

Ragone has previously worked on product and innovation at ebay, held the position of CTO at the eBay-owned Gumtree Australia, and most recently as CTO, General Manager Technology at Air New Zealand.

He will start at Trade Me at the end of May, replacing Simon Young.

The position of Trade Me CTO is a new role created after Chief Product & Technology Officer Young told the company he was moving on.

Young told the Herald he has a new gig lined up, which will be revealed shortly.

A spokeswoman for Air New Zealand said, "A search is underway for Paolo's replacement."

Trade Me was delisted from the NZX last year after being bough b UK-based private equity outfit Apax Partners in a $2.56 billion deal.

The new owners have slimmed down, selling LifeDirect back to its former owners, and got in hot water with the Privacy Commissioner over a privacy policy update that told users Trade Me could use some personal information of members in its marketing.