Just three months into the new role, telco's group executive of retail has resigned for personal reasons
Telstra’s Retail group executive, Dr Karsten Wildberger, will resign from the ASX-listed telco and return to Germany next year for personal reasons.
Dr Wildberger was only appointed to the role in October following the departure of former executive, Gordon Ballantyne, who quit after five years with the business. Two of these were spent as head of retail and included leading a revamp of Telstra’s retail division, as well as its health division.
Ballantyne’s exit was followed by a shake-up of Telstra’s executive ranks that saw Wildberger promoted from group MD of consumer and acting group MD of products, to group executive of retail.
As part of that restructure, Telstra marketing and media leader, Joe Pollard, was also promoted to CMO and group executive of media. Group MD of strategic finance and acting group executive for international, Cynthia Whelan, was also promoted to group executive of international and new business.
In an ASX statement, Telstra CEO, Andy Penn, noted Dr Wildberger’s contribution to Telstra’s progress and said he was sorry to see him go.
Dr Wildberger will take an executive role outside of the telecommunications industry when he returns to Germany towards the middle of next year.
“Karsten is a great executive. We will be disappointed to see him go but understand his personal reasons,” Penn said. “Karsten brings great energy and passion to our business and has significant global experience.”
Telstra said it will announce succession arrangements for Telstra Retail in the near future.
Prior to joining Telstra, Dr Wildberger was a partner and managing director with The Boston Consulting Group advising on telecommunications, technology, industrial goods and utilities globally. He also held executive VP role in finance, sales and marketing at Deutsche Telekom in the UK and Germany as well as roles within Vodafone.
Follow CMO on Twitter: @CMOAustralia, take part in the CMO conversation on LinkedIn: CMO ANZ, join us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CMOAustralia, or check us out on Google+: google.com/+CmoAu
In the third and final episode of our 3-part CMO50 video series exploring modern marketing and why it’s become a matter of trust, we’re delighted to be joined by Telstra’s former CMO and now digital services and sales executive, Jeremy Nicholas, and Adobe VP Marketing Asia-Pacific and Japan, Duncan Egan.
Flash back to the classic film, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. Television-obsessed Mike insists on becoming the first person to be ‘sent by Wonkavision’, dematerialising on one end, pixel by pixel, and materialising in another space. His cinematic dreams are realised thanks to rash decisions as he is shrunken down to fit the digital universe, followed by a trip to the taffy puller to return to normal size.
Why is it there is no shortage of leadership development materials, yet outstanding leadership is so rare? Despite having access to so many leadership principles, tools, systems and processes, why is it so hard to develop and improve as a leader?
As a nation united by sport, brands are beginning to learn money alone won’t talk without aligned values and action. If recent events with major leagues and their players have shown us anything, it’s the next generation of athletes are standing by what they believe in – and they won’t let their values be superseded by money.
