Optus CEO Kelly Bayer Rosmarin considers stepping down

afr.com:

Optus chief executive Kelly Bayer Rosmarin is considering exiting the country’s second-largest telecommunications group after two major crises in 12 months and as she prepares for a difficult Senate hearing on Friday.

Ms Bayer Rosmarin, who will appear at a parliamentary hearing called by the Greens into a lengthy, network-wide outage last week, has faced considerable pressure to resign. She will appear at the inquiry with Optus’ network business chief, Lambo Kanagaratnam, after a week of recriminations between the company and its owner, Singapore’s Singtel.

Optus chief executive Kelly Bayer Rosmarin is reconsidering her future as CEO of the telco group. Michael Quelch

The outage last Wednesday affected Optus’ entire telephone and internet network and prevented some calls to emergency numbers. It was the second major incident to affect the company in the last 12 months, after a massive cybersecurity breach compromised the personal details of many Optus customers and led to legal action against the telco.

Ms Bayer Rosmarin, who has held the top job at Optus since April 2020, is considering her position ahead of the inquiry and could leave as early as next week, sources close to the chief executive who spoke on condition of anonymity said. If she does depart, it would be pitched as a way to allow Optus the opportunity to restore its reputation and stem customer loss.

Telstra chief executive Vicki Brady this week said that her company had picked up some Optus customers since the outage and other companies, including TPG Telecom, have also reported an increase in sales.

Last week’s outage, which has raised concerns over the resilience of Australia’s critical infrastructure, has sparked Senate and parliamentary inquiries.

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