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Last Friday\u2019s Senate hearing had all the signs of a final act for Optus CEO Kelly Bayer Rosmarin, who quit three days later after facing an unprecedented level of pressure, including a two-hour sustained grilling from senators across the political spectrum.<\/p>\n
Rumours were flying in the days leading up to the hearing that Bayer Rosmarin was already considering stepping down, after first presiding over one of Australia\u2019s most severe data breaches, and then one of the country\u2019s worst ever telecommunications outages. All of it within the space of a year or so.<\/p>\n
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Optus CEO Kelly Bayer Rosmarin during a Senate hearing at Parliament House in Canberra on Friday.<\/span>Credit: <\/span>Alex Ellinghausen<\/cite><\/p>\n Those rumours of her exit materialised on Monday morning and Bayer Rosmarin\u2019s departure has sparked speculation whether the executive was effectively pushed out by the board of Optus\u2019 parent company Singtel, or if she chose to leave the business.<\/p>\n The financial toll had already begun racking up for Optus parent company Singtel, with rivals Telstra and TPG each reporting early signs of customers jumping ship. That\u2019s before the inevitable hefty compensation bill it will be forced to pay to business customers, and any potential consumer class action lawsuits still to come.<\/p>\n Bayer Rosmarin may have also succumbed to the mounting pressure, which only intensified after the Senate hearing, and decided to pick up a far less stressful job.<\/p>\n She told this masthead on her first day as Optus CEO, on April 1, 2020, that she was no stranger to a crisis, having served in an executive capacity at CBA during the global financial crisis, and at a technology start-up during the dotcom bust of the early 2000s.<\/p>\n Lines outside an Optus store on the day of the outage earlier this month.<\/span>Credit: <\/span>Chris Hopkins<\/cite><\/p>\n \u201cMy life lessons have made me very well-prepared to take the helm at this time of a global pandemic, and I\u2019m going to be leveraging all that experience,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n With Bayer Rosmarin\u2019s CEO tenure at Optus now coming to a premature end, attention will turn to succession. So, who\u2019s in line to pick up the top job at Australia\u2019s second-largest telco?<\/p>\n The early frontrunner is former NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian, who has served as one of Bayer Rosmarin\u2019s top deputies since February 2022, when she was appointed the managing director of Optus\u2019 enterprise and business services unit.<\/p>\n Telco insiders, who could not comment publicly on the issue, say that while Berejiklian is expected to put her hand up for the role, Singtel\u2019s board will need to wait for a successful appeal against the corruption finding made against her by ICAC in June this year.<\/p>\n Former NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian is the frontrunner to be the next Optus CEO.<\/span>Credit: <\/span>Ben Rushton<\/cite><\/p>\n Berejiklian has led Optus\u2019 efforts to poach government contracts away from rival Telstra, and kept her job at the telco despite the findings of \u201cserious corrupt conduct\u201d against her by NSW\u2019s independent watchdog relating to her time as premier. She\u2019s now fighting to clear her name through a process in the Court of Appeal.<\/p>\n Berejiklian initially weighed a tilt at federal politics after departing from her role as premier, before deciding to join Optus in a move that sent shockwaves through the telco sector at the time.<\/p>\n She will now be the favourite to step up as Optus CEO, but questions will persist about those corruption findings, and whether Singtel\u2019s board will prefer a candidate with more technical expertise, particularly after a mass outage.<\/p>\n Berejiklian, when handpicked to join Optus, was not seen as a potential CEO candidate. Instead, her job was to leverage her political heft to win government and enterprise contracts. However, given the corporate firestorm raging at Optus, and the telco in need of public goodwill, Berejiklian could be in with a shot for the top job.<\/p>\n Alternatively, Singtel could decide they need a CEO without any lingering PR issues to helm Optus, which would leave the door open for Matt Williams, the executive currently in charge of the telco\u2019s consumer solutions division.<\/p>\n Williams has a reputation for being a good operator and to date has skated through Optus\u2019 successive crises without losing much skin. A New Zealand native, Williams served at Optus rival Vodafone for over a decade, and has an attractive combination of technical chops and marketing nous.<\/p>\n Another contender could be someone from within Singtel\u2019s own walls who is relatively untainted by the scandals of the past 13 months. Nearly a decade ago, the company tapped the former head of its Digital Life group, Allan Lew, to be chief executive after a head-hunting process that lasted nearly a year.<\/p>\n Singtel chairman Lee Theng Kiat and CEO Yuen Kuan Moon may again want a trusted hand flown in to run their Australian division, like Singtel deputy chief executive officer Anna Yip, or CEO Ng Tian Chong.<\/p>\n Whoever ends up winning the gig at Optus, they will be taking on what is arguably one of the least enviable jobs in corporate Australia: fixing the telco\u2019s reputation, holding on to as many business and consumer customers as possible, fortifying its network infrastructure to prevent a repeat outage.<\/p>\n And perhaps, upping the paltry 200 gigabytes of data offered in compensation to affected Optus customers.<\/p>\n The Business Briefing newsletter delivers major stories, exclusive coverage and expert opinion.<\/i><\/b> Sign up to get it every weekday morning<\/i><\/b>.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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