Gattung's tell-all memoir

Theresa Gattung. Photo / Greg Bowker

Former Telecom chief executive Theresa Gattung will publish a memoir in March which is being promoted as a no-holds-barred account of her 11-year career at the company.

Published by Random House, the book - Bird on a Wire - is out on March 12.

Gattung was 37 when she was appointed chief executive in 1999, taking over from Roderick Deane who became chairman.

She headed the company from 1999 to 2007 and once infamously admitted the company had used confusion as a marketing tool to maintain profit.

The job gave her an international profile and she was named by Forbes as one of the world's 100 Most Powerful Women in 2006.

Now the chairwoman of Wool International, she has said women need to break into the boards of big agricultural corporates in groups to make a difference.

"Storm the Bastille and get on the shareholders council, but get in as a group and not one or two because it is too easy to be picked on," she told women in the dairy industry.

- NZPA