Optus has appointed a telecoms veteran as its new chief executive, six months after a nationwide outage at the telco left almost a third of Australians without internet or mobile service.
Stephen Rue will become chief executive of Optus in November after six years as head of Australia’s National Broadband Network and four years as chief financial officer.
During his time at Network, he oversaw the deployment of broadband to more than eight million homes and businesses nationwide.
“I am honored and excited to have the opportunity to lead Optus, a company that has strived to serve Australians for more than two decades,” Rue said in a statement on Monday.
‘My job will be to look after Optus’ customers, people and businesses and provide strong competition and choice.
“I look forward to accelerating the transformation at Optus so that Australians continue to have the choice of a strong alternative telecommunications provider.”
Optus chairman Paul O’Sullivan said Rue’s appointment came after an extensive internal, external and international search.
“We expect Stephen’s operational and financial experience to significantly improve service standards for the benefit of our customers,” he said.
“His experience in building Australia’s digital backbone will serve us well as we reinvigorate Optus as Australia’s leading telecommunications brand.”
Optus has also introduced a new governance model that will force its CEO and executives to report to the board and rebuild customer trust.
Former Optus boss Kelly Bayer Rosmarin resigned in November after the telecoms giant suffered two major PR disasters.
In September 2022, Optus suffered a massive data breach affecting 10 million Australians and resulting in 10,000 customers’ driver’s licence, Medicare and passport numbers being stolen and leaked online.
Former Optus boss Kelly Bayer Rosmarin resigned in November after the telecoms giant suffered two major PR disasters.
About 14 months later, it was hit by a 12-hour blackout that prevented millions of Australians from accessing the internet and receiving cell service and halting thousands of emergency calls.
The federal government has since reviewed the outage and is planning changes to protect Australians from future problems by increasing emergency network oversight and improving accountability for telecommunications companies.