Spirit Telecom appoints its first CMO

ASX-listed ISP, Spirit Telecom, has brought on a new chief marketing officer as well as chief operating officer to join its executive team.

Catherine Bolch joins as Spirit's first CMO after spending the past 11 years at Origin Energy. During her time with the energy utility group, she worked across retail marketing, communication and brand strategy, managing marketing and campaign budgets of up to $10 million and teams of 50 people.

Bolch boasts strategic culture, diversity and employee engagement skills and was head of diversity and engagement prior to leaving Origin Energy at the end of 2015. Her resume also includes marketing and customer relation positions with Primus Telecom and ANZ.

Spirit Telecom has also appointed Matthew Hobbs as its new COO. He replaces former COO, Russell Mitchell, who helped the telco transition back to a public listing in June, and is now taking up the new post of general manager of market development, focused on creating a new revenue segment.

Hobbs has more than 20 years’ experience in ICT including a stint as CIO at M2, a role he rose to after he selling his own business to the telecommunications group, Wholesale Communications Group, in 2007. Among his achievements was leading a national team of more than 120 staff and playing a major role in M2’s acquisition of 10 companies, growing its revenues from $34 million to over $500m in a four-year period.

Hobbs was most recently national sales and operations manager for speciality telco business, Alltel, a positioned he held for three years.

“Catherine and Matthew bring a wealth of experience to Spirit, not only in their respective roles, but also in understanding the growth requirements commensurate with Spirit’s ambitions,” said Spirit’s managing director, Geoff Neate.

Spirit Telecom relisted on the ASX after successfully raising $2.62 million through a new shares scheme in June this year.

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