Former SBS boss joins Telstra in management shake-up
Telstra has announced a shake-up of more than half its executive ranks, including the appointment of former SBS boss Michael Ebeid to run its Enterprise team and the departure of chief financial officer Warwick Bray.
Head of technology Stephen Elop, wholesale boss Will Irving and chief marketing officer Joe Pollard will also leave the telecommunications company. Mr Irving has been with Telstra since 1997 and has recently been developing Telstra InfraCo, which will be led by current Enterprise head Brendon Riley under the changes.
Mr Penn last month flagged there would be changes to his management team as the company works to reposition itself amid strong competition for mobile and internet customers and as it deals with the impact of the NBN.
Former SBS chief executive and managing director Mr Ebeid, who stepped down from the public broadcaster after 7½ years in mid-July, previously worked at Optus Communications as commercial operations director for a decade and spent a stint at the ABC. He will join Telstra in October.
When he left SBS, Mr Ebeid described it as "one of the most difficult decisions I've made" and noted the amount of "change" he'd seen in the industry in the past few years. While at the broadcaster, SBS launched three free-to-air television channels and the streaming service SBS On Demand, which has about 5 million subscribers. Streaming and video content, particularly live-streaming popular sport, has become increasingly important for telcos trying to differentiate themselves to customers.
Former executive vice president of networks for Reliance Jio in India, Nikos Katinakis, will join the telco as the lead for networks and IT.
“I am excited to be announcing three significant external hires today. Both Michael Ebeid and Nikos
Katinakis bring with them significant experience across a range of industries, including
telecommunications, and will be instrumental in Telstra’s transformation," Mr Penn said in a statement on Monday, noting a new head of product and technology would soon be announced.
“We are fundamentally re-engineering how Telstra operates, and our new organisational structure
and operating model are designed to remove complexity and management layers, decrease the
focus on hierarchical decision-making and increase the focus on empowered teams making
decisions closer to the customer," he said.
Current chief operations officer Robyn Denholm will be moved into the role of chief financial officer and head of strategy.
Telstra's enterprise group managing director of global services and international, David Burns, will be head of Global Business Services, while group executive for human resources Alex Badenoch will be leading the Telstra 2022 strategy transformation execution, with a focus on employee engagement.
Consumer and small business executive Vicky Brady and group general counsel Carmel Mulhern will continue in their current roles.
Mr Penn last month outlined a new strategy, dubbed Telstra 2022, under which it has increased its cost-cutting target from $1 billion to $2.5 billion over the next four years. Under the plan, 9500 jobs will go, with between two and four layers of middle management to be eliminated. Telstra will also create about 1500 new roles in software engineering and cyber-security.
Telstra has been languishing due to increased pressure in the ferociously competitive mobile market, and thinner than expected margins under the NBN. Mr Penn's plan aims to placate disgruntled investors after a torrid period for Telstra, which has seen it shed more than $40 billion in market value since early 2015.
More to come