Uncle Sol Leaving Telstra On June 30

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10:20AM February 26, 2009 | Nick Broughall

Sol-Trujillo-Waves-Goodbye.jpgThis has been rumoured and speculated on for weeks, but today Telstra announced that Sol Trujillo will be leaving his position as CEO of Telsta on June 30. Adios Amigo!Despite just how easy it has been to rip into the guy, you can’t deny that he did a lot for Telstra and its shareholders during his tenure. I mean they are making bucketloads of cash, and NextG is the best mobile network in the country, even if it is the most expensive. And that moustache is just so damn lustrous…

Here’s the press release for your enjoyment. It will be interesting to see whether the company opts for another overseas appointment to replace Sol, but we’ll have the next couple of months to watch that particular game of cat and mouse unfold.

Telstra CEO Sol Trujillo to depart company on 30 June

Telstra Chairman Donald McGauchie today announced that the company’s Chief Executive Officer, Mr Sol Trujillo, would leave the company on 30 June 2009 to return home to the United States.

Mr Trujillo discussed his intentions with the Board yesterday.

Mr McGauchie said Mr Trujillo and the Board agreed that now was a suitable time for a transition to a new CEO given Telstra’s transformation is well advanced and on track.

The Board, through its Nomination Committee, is well prepared with succession planning and will now formally commence a wide-ranging search for a suitable successor. The Board expects to make an appointment by 30 June 2009.

“On behalf of the Telstra Board I would like to congratulate Sol on his outstanding leadership and extraordinary achievements,” Mr McGauchie said.

“His vision, strategic direction and commitment to execution have positioned Telstra as a media communications company with a wide range of options for ongoing growth.

“Under Sol’s leadership, Telstra has significantly outperformed the market and its global peers, producing world-leading results within the telecommunications sector.

“The Next G™ network is undeniably the world’s best national mobile broadband network and stands as Sol’s crowning achievement.”

Mr Trujillo thanked the Telstra Board and the company’s employees for their strong support and commitment since his arrival in July 2005.

He said he would continue to drive the business until his departure at the end of June and work with the Board and senior management to ensure a smooth transition.

“I would particularly like to thank my senior management team and Telstra’s employees who are truly committed to bringing world-leading services to our customers. The results we have achieved together over the past four years make me incredibly proud,” Mr Trujillo said.

“Telstra is outperforming domestic and global peers in virtually every category. We are well positioned to hit the key transformation targets we set in November 2005 and I have every confidence that Telstra will continue to deliver world-leading results for shareholders.”

Mr McGauchie said that Sol’s many achievements include:

* the integrated Next G™ and Next IP™ networks
* a critical role in the successful completion of Telstra’s privatisation
* driving innovation across the company
* migration of seven million customers to Telstra’s new IT platforms
* the rollout of ADSL2+ to exchanges covering 82 per cent of the population
* Market-Based Management and customer segmentation
* the launch and rollout of the T[life] ™ stores
* expansion into mainland China with successful new acquisitions

“In 2005, Sol presented to the Board and the market the performance and financial metrics by which he wanted to be judged. Without question, he has delivered,” Mr McGauchie said.

“Sol will leave the company exceptionally well positioned for the future, and we wish him all the best.

“We look forward to Sol continuing to drive the business between now and June 30 and I have no doubt that his leadership of Telstra over the past four years will long be considered a pivotal and critical period in Telstra’s history.”

Comments

  • Daniel

    February 26, 2009 at 11:09 AM

    What Telstra really needs is a foriegner as a CEO who will implement strategies to gauge the crap out of us… oh wait…

  • Aaron

    February 26, 2009 at 11:15 AM

    “We look forward to Sol continuing to drive the business from somewhere in America between now and June 30 “

    Fixed.

    So long and good riddance. Nice pic too giz :D

  • decoder

    February 26, 2009 at 11:23 AM

    How much will his golden handshake be?

  • MJF

    February 26, 2009 at 11:34 AM

    He is taking about 100,000,000 of our australian bucks with him. Good riddance. Just because telstra has the largest coverage doesn’t mean Sol did a good job. Telstra had the largest coverage anyway! He didn’t make them any more competitive, all he did is laid off workers, made their service even MORE terrible than it already was and took home a massive paycheck.

  • Tortilla

    February 26, 2009 at 11:37 AM

    Hiya Sol! I’ve got some burritos and enchiladas waiting for you at home.

  • Will

    February 26, 2009 at 11:43 AM

    Good riddance to bad rubbish.

  • boc

    February 26, 2009 at 12:59 PM

    It’s quite embarrassing that the achievements attributed to him, he had nothing to do with and would have been accomplished even if we had a wombat as CEO.

    What’s more embarrassing is that we paid him massive amounts of money for the displeasure of putting up with him for so long.

  • Foobar

    February 26, 2009 at 2:22 PM

    Dugg for “lustrous”

  • Glenn

    February 26, 2009 at 2:42 PM

    Thank God, and good riddance to a true example of American Scum. And Telstra can go and get stuffed too.

  • Red T-Rex

    February 26, 2009 at 2:44 PM

    What exactly has he done for Telstra? Telstra were already making billions in profit before he arrived and the share price is still in the toilet! Plus they completely stuffed up their Tender entry for the new network rollout. Yeah, good job!

  • AL

    February 26, 2009 at 6:27 PM

    Forget golden handshake – give him a golden shower on his way out of the country. Asshat.

  • Marion Taylor

    February 26, 2009 at 9:06 PM

    YES!!! Woo hoo! Had a feeling it was coming. My next boss HAS to be better than this gready, dictator, money hungry, customer hating, employee hating (I could go on but I won’t. You get the picture. lol). Hope the new man at the top is an Aussie, if not an aussie, at least someone who will bring back customer care and try to build Telstra’s name back up. See ya Sol and good bloody riddance to you!

  • D

    February 26, 2009 at 10:45 PM

    That’s great news, now we can see a development in telecommunication in australia.

    How can an important person in Australia’s Telcom, not believing in iPhone 1.0 to be a hit?
    Plus, where’s that “fast broadband” backbone in Australia … ?

    Go away and bring us a better, more educated and a technology guru CEO. How hard can it be?

  • BlueCrayon

    February 26, 2009 at 11:21 PM

    I have an idea what he will be doing in his next job. http://img80.imageshack.us/img80/1142/nintendomarioceosoltrujdq2.jpg

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