The head of NBN Co, Mike Quigley, is stepping down soon, and says that he plans to retire.
NBN Co announced his plans to soon step down from the position minutes ago, ending a four-year stint with the company.
Quigley joined the National Broadband Network Company almost four years ago to the day (25 July) in 2009.
He came on board with the company to drive the roll-out of the nation’s largest infrastructure roll-out, and has carefully navigated the political minefield of the fibre network since then. He had the full backing of former Communications Minister, Senator Stephen Conroy, as the two fronted up to many a Senate Estimates inquiry in Canberra, while those across the aisle, including Shadow Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull, continually put Quigley on notice as not long for the post if and when a Coalition government took power.
Quigley said via a press release today that he will continue in the position until a replacement can be found.
Here’s his full statement to the press:
My job was to lay the foundations for the NBN for the next 30 years. That job is largely complete. NBN Co is now a well- established wholesale telecommunications company with a nationwide workforce, delivery partners, infrastructure agreements, complex IT systems and more than 40 retail customers which are supplying fast, reliable and affordable broadband to a growing number of Australians.
The role of the next CEO will be to build on these foundations. It is now critical that we further strengthen our partnerships across the construction and telecommunications industries, as we escalate the build of the network and work closely with our retail customers to ensure a smooth migration of families and businesses to the NBN.
I joined NBN Co because I believed better telecommunications was central to Australia’s ongoing success. I still believe that today. The ramp-up in construction and the news last week that the company had passed more than 200,000 premises with fibre gives me further confidence that the NBN build can be delivered by 2021 in line with the projections in the company’s Corporate Plan.
A press conference has been scheduled for 2pm AEST this afternoon.
Shadow Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull still has few kind words for the departing head of NBN Co:
revolving doors at #NBN Co just as there are in the Labor caucus. How can project be a success when CEO gets fired?
— Malcolm Turnbull (@TurnbullMalcolm) July 12, 2013
While Communications Minister Anthony Albanese still loves paraphrasing quotes from the hey-day of Tony Windsor:
The Government thanks Mike Quigley for his role in establishing NBN Co and rolling out a world-class communications network to all Australians. Mr Quigley was the first employee of NBN Co and has overseen its development from the very beginning. Mr Quigley came out of retirement to head NBN Co. He was eager to join the project because he understood the importance of nation- building infrastructure that is essential for our nation’s economic future.
Mr Quigley also understands, intuitively, what all good infrastructure builders know: you do it once and you do it right. Mr Quigley was instrumental in negotiating the deal with Telstra which has paved the way for the NBN rollout.
Over the past four years, Mr Quigley has also successfully managed the switching on of fibre, fixed wireless and satellite connections right across the country, as NBN Co has established the full scale rollout of the National Broadband Network. Mr Quigley can be tremendously proud of what he has achieved.
On behalf of the Government and the Australian people, we wish to thank Mike Quigley for helping build the infrastructure Australia needs for the 21st century.