Trujillo makes 'amigo' his right hand man

Stuart Corner
Saturday, 10 September 2005 16:26

IT Industry - Deals

Telstra's new CEO, Sol Trujillo, has elevated one of the three former colleagues from the US whom he brought in when he joined Telstra, the so-called 'three amigos' to a new position of chief operations officer giving him control over 60 percent of Telstra's staff.

Greg Winn has been given responsibility for "all functions that are associated with the operations of Telstra's business". Trujillo said: "We are bringing together [under Winn] all the people involved in delivering the infrastructure, service and systems which support the customer experience."

When Winn, a former US West COO, was originally brought into Telstra by Trujillo his role was announced as being only a short term assignment to work with Trujillo on a review of operations.

Trujillo said a new Program Office would be established, reporting to Winn. Its mission will be to "identify and prioritise opportunities for streamlining, implementing and co-ordinating all aspects of the company's operations in order to deliver the best possible customer service."

Winn will be responsible for a group comprising the design, maintenance, repair and expansion of Telstra's networks for all retail and wholesale customers; Telstra's information technology, including all infrastructure platforms and applications, operational support systems and billing support systems; all procurement-related activities, along with fleet and real estate; all aspects of fault resolution; all process improvement and productivity improvement activities; all billing and credit management activities; and new infrastructure ventures activities.

Winn will also assume responsibility on an interim basis for Human Resources, following the retirement of group managing director, Bill Scales.

As part of the shake-up, group managing director Telstra Technology Innovation and Product, Ted Pretty, will leave the company on August 19, and his role will cease to exist. Michael Rocca, who previously reported to Pretty, will report to Winn and continue in his role of group managing director Infrastructure Services and as a member of the senior leadership team.