Telstra has announced a major shake-up of the company with the appointment of the former Chief Executive of St George Bank and the resignation after 43 years of the company’s Chief Operations Officer.
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| Brendon Riley |
David Thody, the CEO of Telstra, today announced that Paul Fegan has been appointed Group Managing Director of a new business unit of the company, Strategy & Corporate Services that will undertake new strategic functions from February.
He has also appointed Brendon Riley as the new Chief Operations Officer, replacing Michael Rocca who is ending his 43 year career with Telstra. Riley had previously worked with Thody at IBM, where he was the General Manager for its North-eastern European division.
“These appointments are an investment in the next generation of company leaders. Brendon and Paul will lead functions that are fundamental to the company’s future success. Their appointments will add breadth, depth and diversity of experience to our leadership team,” Mr Thodey said.
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| Paul Fegan |
While Riley has extensive experience in IT through IBM, Fegan brings his financial experience to Telstra from heading St George Bank as CEO and Managing Director. His new business unit will combine Telstra’s public policy, communications, corporate strategy and all mergers and acquisitions in the future.
Though Fegan is replacing David Quilty and some of the functions of Robert Nason, he will not be heading Telstra’s three year overhaul of its business that includes 500 employees working on 27 separate sub-projects, coined ‘Project New.’
Project New was announced in 2010 and marked the “largest single change program Telstra has undertaken since privatisation,” according to Nason. The business restructure is continuing with the appointment of Paul Fegan and Brendon Riley.
