Telstra (ASX: TLS.AX) has decided to put both its retail and sales teams into one common division following its agreement to sell its wireline network infrastructure to the Australian government's National Broadband Network (NBN).
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New unit leaders: Gordon Ballantyne, Stuart Lee, and Deena Shiff |
Gordon Ballantyne will become Telstra's new Chief Customer Officer, overseeing a unit that provides services to consumers, business and government agencies. The department heads of Telstra's business, enterprise and government teams will report directly to Ballyntyne and will become members of the extended CEO leadership team.
Fellow Telstra veteran Deena Shiff will oversee Telstra's newly formed Applications & Ventures Group (AVG), which will target new business service opportunities in the healthcare and education industry verticals.
After more than two years of sometimes contentious negotiations, Telstra finalized its agreement to sell its wireline network to the government for AUD 11 billion ($11.8 billion). Despite agreeing selling off its network, David Thodey, Telstra's CEO, is continuing to pump innovation into Telstra by investing AUD 800 million ($842 million) to expand its cloud capabilities through 2016.
Heading up Telstra's wholesale unit will be 40-year Telstra veteran Stuart Lee. Lee, who becomes Group Managing Director, Telstra Wholesale, will be responsible for helping the Australian telecom industry transition to an NBN environment.
Over the next seven years, Telstra will transfer its wireline (both copper and HFC) network customers to the government's NBN.
For more:
- see the release
- Bloomberg has this article
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