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Australian incumbent announced appointments of telecoms heavyweights Stephen Elop and Kevin Russell.
Telstra on Wednesday announced the appointment of two new executives, both big name hires.
Stephen Elop, the former CEO of Nokia who oversaw the sale of the company’s devices business to Microsoft in 2014, has joined the Australian incumbent’s senior leadership team in the newly created role of group executive for technology, innovation and strategy.
Meanwhile, next month Kevin Russell will arrive at Telstra to serve as group executive for Telstra Retail.
Russell is currently acting as interim CEO of U.S.-based start-up Collinear Networks, but he has a strong track record at major telcos. He was the top executive at Telstra rival Optus for just over two years, ending in March 2014, and prior to that was CEO of Hutchison’s 3 in the U.K. He has held a number of positions within the Hutchison group over the last couple of decades, and also spent two years as chief financial officer of Israel’s Partner Communications around the turn of the millennium.
Telstra CEO Andrew Penn said he looks forward to welcoming Russell to the company.
"He has passionately worked to build customer experiences in new and existing major consumer brands and service business clients," Penn said. "He has managed major programmes across national fixed and mobile networks and is well regarded in the local technology community."
Russell also picked up the customer experience angle.
"Telstra is committed to improving its service to its customers and to simplifying and strengthening its core business. These are key directions in which I believe my experience will be directly relevant," he said.
"More broadly, the market transition to the National Broadband Network and accelerating technology innovation presents growth opportunities and changing competitive dynamics requiring nimble execution," Russell added.
He will join the company in late April, replacing Karsten Wildberger, who is due to leave at the end of March to return to Europe.
Elop, meanwhile, is due to take up his new position on 4 April. He will be based jointly in Australia and in the U.S. and will report directly to Penn.
His area of the business, the technology, innovation and strategy portfolio, brings together various aligned functions, including the chief technology office, Telstra’s chief scientist, its software group, and corporate strategy, the telco explained.
