Telstra COO Kate McKenzie quits

After a series of network outages plaguing Australia’s largest telecommunications company this year, Kate McKenzie has finally decided to step down from Telstra after serving the firm for the past 12 years. Telstra announced McKenzie’s retirement Monday morning as she said time is ripe for her to consider a shift in career.

“It has been a wonderful 12 years with Telstra and I am very proud of all the people I have worked with and what we have achieved together,” McKenzie said in a statement.

“The time is right for me to change direction in my career. I leave knowing that Telstra, under Andy Penn’s leadership, has a great strategy for the future and wish the company, its people and its shareholders every success,” she added.

‘Positive force’

For his part, Telstra Chief Executive Officer Andrew Penn thanked McKenzie for her significant contribution to the company.

“Kate has been a positive force for Telstra, supporting four Chief Executive Officers and working to build our technology and innovation capability. She has been a significant contributor to our customer-focused culture and a role model for women in the organisation. I have appreciated her support and counsel,” Penn said.

Following McKenzie’s retirement, Group Executive Global Enterprise and Services, Brendon Riley, will be the interim Chief Operations Officer while Telstra is still scouting for a permanent replacement.

Network outages

McKenzie’s exit from Telstra came after a series of network outages hit the company this year. To recall, a national mobile network outage on Feb. 9 has caused inconvenience to 17 million customers. Another nationwide network meltdown occurred on March 17, forcing Telstra to compensate clients with a “Free Data Day.” Later that month, close to 400,000 Telstra customers lost fixed Internet access from March 20 to 22. And recently, 20 percent of Telstra’s enterprise customers lost Internet connections for seven hours on June 30.

It is not immediately clear if the series of network outages have forced McKenzie to quite. Since 2013, she has been responsible for Telstra’s field services, IT and network architecture and operations.

McKenzie joined Telstra in 2004 as head of Telstra's regulatory group. Within a year, she was eventually promoted to Deputy Group Managing Director for Public Policy and Communications and later as Group Managing Director of Strategic Marketing and Group Managing Director of Telstra Wholesale.

McKenzie has been Telstra Chief Operations Officer since 2013. She has been part of Telstra’s CEO leadership team since 2007.