Batistich to leave Westfield after 9 years as marketing chief

Westfield owner, The Scentre Group, has confirmed the departure of its longstanding marketing chief, John Batistich, after nine years at the helm.

In a statement, the company said Batistich would leave the business at the end of May to pursue new opportunities. The news comes just weeks after the group’s CEO, Peter Allen, announced plans to create a customer experience division, aligning centre management, marketing, digital and insights teams together in order to ensure all of its activities are subjected to a customer-centric lens.

Batistich, who was ranked number 2 in CMO’s first CMO50 in 2015, is a highly respected marketer, first joining Lion Nathan as a brand marketer before moving to Pepsi, The Wrigley Company regionally, and then Westfield.

During his time with the shopping mall owner, the company said Batistich had utilised digital technology and data to transform the customer journey.

“Batistich leaves the organisation well positioned to continue this direction, with major achievements including facilitating our first Web to mall platform, westfield.com.au searchable mall and delivering Scentre Group’s Wi-Fi service and location analytics platform across all 35 Westfield shopping centres in Australia,” the company said in a statement.

According to The Scentre Group, the new division will oversee every single shopper touch point – before, during, and after visits to a Westfield centre - and reflects the business’ desire to have a more direct relationship with shoppers.

Batistich's replacement has not yet been announced.