Our monthly round-up of the latest major CIO appointments from around the world:

Australia

Lawrie Turner, CIO at the Optus arm of SingTel, has left the telco after three years, heading to Queensland rail freight company QR National.

Canada

Ken Cochrane, former CIO for the Government of Canada, has joined KPMG in Ottawa to lead the firm’s IT advisory services, with a focus on technology-enabled transformation.

Switzerland

Stefan Arn, currently CIO for wealth management at UBS, has been promoted to group head of IT for Switzerland.

Taiwan

Former Sony Ericsson CTO Ron Louks has moved to mobile phone company HTC Corporation as the company’s chief strategy officer, with a brief to drive innovation and technological advances.

UK

In a boardroom shake-up at British American Tobacco, Ben Stevens, the finance director, is to take on the additional role of CIO.

O2 has poached former Vodafone IT chief Phil Jordan as its new CIO, reporting to UK CTO Derek McManus.

Duncan Gray is to leave departe House of Fraser after nearly four years as its head of IT. Paul Maxwell, who was previously head of IT at high-street shoe retailer Faith and head of product systems at Debenhams, will be his replacement.

Natasha Davydova has been appointed MD of group technology and operations at Deutsche Bank, joining from Standard Chartered Bank. She will report to the global CIO of the capital markets technology division, Anthony McCarthy.

US

Ahead of the proposed merger of United Airlines and Continental Airlines, which is due to close by year end, it has been confirmed that Keith Halbert will become CIO of the combined airline.

Charles Boucher has left the Securities and Exchange Commission after serving as its CIO since 2008. His replacement has not yet been named.

Sterling Bank announced that its EVP & CIO Wallis McMath will retire. EVP & director of operations Deborah Dinsmore will step up into the role of chief operations & information officer.

Harvard University has announced the appointment of Anne H Margulies as its new CIO.

The Travelers Co has a new CIO following the departure of Bill Bloom to a New York-based outsourcing company, ExlServices Holdings, as EVP global client services. Madelyn Lankton will replace him as SVP and CIO.

Matthew Swindells, the former director general for information and programme integration at the UK Department of Health, has joined healthcare services provider Cerner Corp as a senior executive in its global organisation.

Online broker TradeKing has appointed one-time Associated Press and Borders IT executive Dan Raju as its first CIO.

Ed Steinike, who rejoined the Coca-Cola Company as CIO in April after a stint as EVP and CIO at ING Insurance, has been promoted to VP of the company.

Jerry Davis, the deputy CIO for security at NASA, has become deputy assistant secretary for information protection and management at the Department of Veterans Affairs, the federal government’s second largest department after Defense.

Health services operator Blue Cross has promoted Anudeep Parhar to VP of technology strategy and planning.