Singtel’s Optus Names Rue as CEO as It Seeks to Rebuild Trust
(Bloomberg) -- Singapore Telecommunications Ltd.’s Australian phone carrier Optus appointed Stephen Rue as chief executive officer with effect from November, it said in a bourse filing Monday.
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Rue has been CEO of Australia’s National Broadband Network since 2018. His appointment comes as Singtel moves to a more decentralized structure, according to a statement announcing the move. Michael Venter will remain interim CEO until Rue’s appointment later this year.
Optus Mobile, wholly owned by Singtel, last week announced an agreement with TPG Telecom to create a regional multi-operator core network. Singtel said about a month ago that there was no impending deal to sell Optus, after a report that Brookfield had been in discussions for a 20% share in Optus but the parties couldn’t agree on terms.
Optus is one of Singtel’s biggest overseas investments, though its recent history has been marred by a widespread outage that forced the resignation of its CEO in November. The disruption followed an earlier cyberattack that exposed the personal information of millions of customers.
Rue and the board “will work together to reset strategy and rebuild customer trust in the Optus brand,” the statement said.
(Updates with further information, context throughout.)
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