Another XT exec jumps Telecom ship

Happier times: Chief transformation officer Frank Mount (L) and Paul Hamburger at the launch of Telecom's ill-fated XT network in 2009. Both men have now resigned.

Telecom's Mr XT, Paul Hamburger, today announced he would be ending his 18 month stint at the company.

Telecom staff were told this morning that Hamburger, the man responsible for mobile devices and services, would leave the company at the end of his contract in July.

His last day of work is 9 July.

Hamburger is the second Telecom executive to leave the company following a run of serious outages to its much vaunted XT mobile network.

In February group chief transformation officer Frank Mount resigned with immediate effect several months short of concluding his fixed-term contract.

Asked at the time whether Mount's resignation made him the "fall guy" for the network's problems, Telecom chief executive Dr Paul Reynolds said: "He was responsible ... for the design and operation of the network and clearly that has not been effective in recent months, so I accepted his resignation."

Hamburger was also on a fixed-term contract, initially for a 12 month period when he joined the telco in mid-way through 2008.

It was rolled over in June last year.

A company spokesperson said Hamburger was departing for personal reasons, in particular, the long periods of time spent apart from his Florida-based family.

"With the launch and consolidation of XT behind us, Paul has made the choice to move on from Telecom at the end of his current contract period," said Telecom's retail division chief executive Alan Gourdie.

Gourdie said Hamburger's responsibilities included mobile product management, plans and pricing, handsets and supply chain, retail promotion and sales, as well as roaming partnerships and services.

Hamburger is not understood to be leaving Telecom for another job.

No announcements have been made regarding a successor.