Gattung flattens out executive structure

By RICHARD BRADDELL

WELLINGTON - Telecom's chief executive since October, Theresa Gattung, has rejigged her senior executive team to sharpen its focus on marketing and business development. All members report directly to her.

"I want to know what's going on, I want to be reasonably close to the action, I want to make sure that I'm accessible and that I really understand the key things going on in each of the areas," Ms Gattung said yesterday.

"I don't want to be protected, I don't want to have one or two managers who are essentially running fiefdoms."

Faced with the decision of what to do with her old job as head of one of the company's two main operational groups, services, Ms Gattung said she decided to get rid of it, instead spreading its functions around some of the dozen senior executives.

"The philosophy is to have a different balance on the top team of people who are driving the business; to have more people who are responsible for bottom-line accountability, for business performance and who have got the customer focus associated with that," she said.

Development of activities which Ms Gattung classes as "the way of the future" will be undertaken by recently appointed Jane Freeman, the former head of ASB's internet bank, BankDirect, who will report to an advisory board of representatives of Telecom and alliance partners EDS and Microsoft.

Meanwhile, the task of reinvigorating sales and marketing of more traditional activities has been entrusted to the managing director of Freightways and former head of Lion Breweries, Kevin Stratful, who takes up his position as general manger sales and service next month.

Ms Gattung said Mr Stratful had 30 years experience in sales and marketing and could bring a fresh impetus at a time when telecommunications was changing dramatically.

"He's been around a long time and he knows how to lead big teams of people, how to motivate people, to basically work with change."

In other appointments, Telecom's general manager business, Mohan Jesudason, will become general manager of mobile; the general manager of services and product and development, Mark Ratcliffe, takes over voice and data; the chief strategy and information officer, Karyn Devonshire, takes on leadership of online development as well and Xtra's general manager, Graham Mitchell, joins the executive team.

Other appointments include services brand manager Jane Austin as GM communications.