Vicki Brady Will Embrace a New Leadership Role at Telstra Beginning September

Beginning the first of September, current Telstra chief financial officer Vicki Brady will become the CEO. This followed after Andy Penn decided to leave after seven years at the helm.

In this case, Brady will become the first female CEO of the telco giant. “I’m very excited to get the opportunity to lead Telstra...it’s great to see another female leading one of Australia’s largest companies,” she said.

According to Telstra chairman John Mullen, Penn had “built a very strong team to ensure the ongoing successful leadership, and the greatest testament to this is the ability for the company to be able to announce an internal successor.”

“Despite the number of highly skilled external candidates being available and considered, I'm therefore delighted to be able to announce that Vicki was the best person and was the board’s unanimous choice to become the new CEO,” he further added.

Still, according to Mullen, Penn would leave a “positive and enduring legacy” for the transformation he has led during his tenure.

“Andy has led Telstra during a period of significant change and will be known for his courage in setting a bold ambition through the T22 strategy to deliver a transformed experience for customers, shareholders, and employees. There is no doubt the strategy has delivered beyond expectations and has laid the foundations for Telstra’s recently announced T25 strategy and a renewed focus on growth and innovation.”

Meanwhile, Brady joined Telstra in 2016. In July of 2019, she was appointed as CFO and group executive responsible for strategy. Before this, she held group executive roles in Optus between 2012 and 2016.

Mullen said that “She has played a key leadership role in the development of Telstra’s T25 strategy and is well placed to lead the company through its next phase. She could not be more qualified to take over the reins to deliver on our T25 commitments.”

When it comes to her own CFO successor, Brady said “We’ve got great talent in our organisation and also obviously, we will ensure we go through a thorough process, but I am confident we will be able to make announcements in due course.”

“Over the next few months I’ll make sure I’m engaging closely with each of the [executive] team members as we think about how to make sure they've got the right challenges and opportunities,” she said. “But right now, we’re very, very focused as a team on completing the job on T22 and absolutely making sure we’ve got the momentum right as we head into T25.”