Chief executive Sol Trujillo has not denied speculation that he will leave Telstra soon. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Chief executive Sol Trujillo has not denied speculation that he will leave Telstra soon. Photo / Mark Mitchell
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BRISBANE - Telstra boss Sol Trujillo says he hopes his successor can be found within the telco, but has ducked questions about his imminent departure.
Trujillo, whose pay package was nearly A$13.4 million ($16.9 million) for the 2008 financial year, said there was a wealth of talent withinthe Telstra leadership team that had been built up over his time as chief executive.
While not denying the departure rumours, he told the QUT Business Leaders' Forum yesterday he'd been planning his departure since the day he arrived in July 2005.
"The day that I took the job is the day I started the conversation with the board about my succession," he said.
"Because things happen, sometimes you can get hit by a truck or you can fall out of the air in an airplane.
"Hopefully there's that look at people who you've developed internally, because they know the business.
"This [Telstra] is a very, very complex business ... boards have to make their choice based on their view of where you go next."
Trujillo's contract is understood to not contain any details on the length of his tenure. There are believed to be four to six serious candidates to fill his shoes at Telstra.
They include long-standing finance chief John Stanhope, group enterprise and government head David Thodey, and Foxtel chief executive Kim Williams.
News Ltd has reported that executive placement firm Egon Zehnder is to conduct an international search for a replacement for Trujillo.
