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Optus CEO Kelly Bayer Rosmarin resigns

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2023-11-20

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Optus is searching for a new CEO following the resignation of Kelly Bayer Rosmarin on Monday morning, after what had been a tumultuous 18 months for the country's second-largest mobile telecoms group. She presided over the 2022 cyberattack and a 10-hour outage that affected millions of Australian customers, both individuals and businesses.

Bayer Rosmarin tendered her resignation on Monday morning after appearing before a Senate committee on Friday. "Having now had time for some personal reflection, I have come to the decision that my resignation is in the best interest of Optus moving forward," she was quoted as saying in a statement issued by Optus.

The telecom's chief financial officer, Michael Venter, will take over as interim CEO while continuing in his current position. Former Optus business managing director Peter Kaliaropoulos will become the company's chief operating officer from Wednesday, a newly created position reporting to Venter.

These changes were made with the approval of Optus' parent company, Singtel, the state-controlled telecoms group based in Singapore. Singtel's CEO, Yeun Kuan Moon, said in Monday's statement: "Optus appointed Kelly at the beginning of the pandemic, and we acknowledge her leadership, commitment, and hard work throughout what has been a challenging period. We thank her for her dedication and service to Optus."

"Kelly has always led with integrity and had all stakeholders' best interests at heart. We understand her decision and wish her the very best in her future endeavors. We recognize the need for Optus to regain customer trust and confidence as the team works through the impact and consequences of the recent outage and continues to improve. Optus' priority is about setting a path of renewal for the benefit of the community and customers," he added.

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