KEY POINTS:
"I can't start with 'It gives me great pleasure to announce' ... possibly later in the week," joked Telecom's chief operating officer of technology and enterprises, Mark Ratcliffe, yesterday at the annual telecommunications and ICT conference.
The replacement for Telecom chief executive Theresa Gattung, in the job for eight years, is expected to known before week's end. She is farewelling staff and clients; Friday was a party in Auckland, tonight is a farewell in Wellington.
Gattung, who intends having a break horse riding in Latin America, will not be drawn on her next career move, other than to say she prefers to make her own opportunities and expects to do so again.
Speculation abounds as to her replacement while the company undergoes changes to the regulatory environment and its corporate structure. Names have included the head of British Telecom wholesale, Paul Reynolds, and Telecom's chief financial officer, Marko Bogoievski, as well as Telecom's consumer business chief operating officer, Kevin Kenrick, and former Vodafone New Zealand head Tim Miles.
