Australia, May 8, 2009 – David Thodey is slated to take the reigns as the Australian telecom group’s new chief executive. The internal candidate will be replacing Sol Trujillo who will be returning to his native US next month. Chairman Donald McGauchie is also stepping down and will be replaced by fellow board member Catherine Livingstone.

“It is my view that speculation on my tenure was a distraction to the business,” says McGauchie. “Nothing should be allowed to get in the way of David and the management team getting on with the important job ahead of them.”

The board changes come as Telstra faces prospects of being broken up as a result of government reviews. They may face a possible split of the group’s retail and network business. Another big challenge for the dominant telecom group is the government-led initiative of building a high-speed fiber-to-the-premise network estimated to cost $43 billion. An earlier proposal for a $10 billion national broadband network collapsed after Tesltra was removed from the process due to a non-compliant bid.

Thodey is the managing director for enterprise and government and former head of US computer group IBM’s Australasian operations. He is expected to mend Telstra’s government relations. “It’s very important we have an open discussion with the government, we will try to find what’s best for Australia and for Telstra,” he said in his first media conference.

Thodey says he hopes to build on the foundation left by his predecessor and is committed to completing the five-year transformation strategy that began nearly four years ago under Trujillo.

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