KEY POINTS:
A Telecom director and recruitment agency representative flew out of New Zealand yesterday to hunt for a new chief executive in Australia and the UK, with one of their top candidates likely to be Paul Reynolds, the head of British Telecom's wholesale unit.
Telecom is likely to interview Reynolds to replace Theresa Gattung, a source with knowledge of the recruitment process said. Gattung resigned as chief executive last month.
Reynolds, 49, has driven fundamental change as the head of the wholesale division of British Telecom and is seen as an ideal candidate to head Telecom because he has overseen British Telecom's wholesale unit since the company voluntarily split in 2005.
Telecom is in the midst of a similar process - separating its wholesale, retail and network arms as determined by the Telecommunications Amendment Act in December last year.
Telecom chairman Wayne Boyd said when Gattung resigned that he was seeking a chief executive who has technical expertise and the ability to manage "truly transformational change" for the company.
Reynolds is known for his leadership and innovation in building British Telecom's world-first all internet protocol infrastructure - where all of the company's services are run via the internet. Telecom is moving to a similar system.
Matthew Flanigan, president of the Telecommunications Industry Association in the US, has said that Reynolds' leadership was fundamentally reshaping the business and creating the most ambitious transformation in the global communications industry.
Reynolds gained a PhD from London University after graduating from Strathclyde University, and has been with British Telecom since 1983, rising through the ranks in the customer service department in Scotland.
In April 2000, he was appointed chief executive of British Telecom Wholesale and in 2001 he was appointed to the board.
Between 1991 and 2000, Reynolds held a number of positions, including director of multimedia.
Gattung has said she will remain in her job until June.
Paul Reynolds
* Chief executive of British Telecom Wholesale
* Holds a PhD in geology
* Joined British Telecom in 1983
* Age 49
