Explore reasons Why Did Kelly Bayer Rosmarin Resign in this article.
Kelly Bayer Rosmarin serves as the CEO of Optus, Australia’s second-largest telecommunications company.
Concurrently, she holds the position of CEO of Consumer Australia within the Singtel Group, Asia’s leading communications company.
Joining Optus as Deputy CEO in March 2019, she assumed the roles of CEO in April 2020.
With a distinguished career spanning various industries and global markets, Kelly Rosmarin is a highly regarded senior executive.
She has earned recognition as one of Australia’s Top 10 Businesswomen, among the Top 25 Women in Asia Pacific Finance, and as one of the 50 Most Powerful Women in Australian Business.
Has Kelly Bayer Romarin resigned?
Yes, Kelly Bayer Rosmarin has stepped down from her role as the CEO of Optus following the widespread service outage that disrupted phone and internet services for a duration of 14 hours nearly two weeks ago.
Why did she resign?
According to a statement issued by Singtel, Optus’s parent company, on Monday morning, Bayer Rosmarin expressed that stepping down at this moment is fitting.
This decision comes after she participated in a Senate inquiry on Friday, where she had the chance to elaborate on the reasons behind the network outage and Optus’s recovery and response efforts.
Optus CEO Kelly Bayer Rosmarin has resigned effective immediately from the telco, following a grilling by a senate inquiry on Friday.
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Kelly Bayer Rosmarin stated,
“On Friday, I had the opportunity to appear before the Senate to provide further details on the cause of the network outage and Optus’s recovery and response.”
“I was also able to communicate Optus’s commitment to restore trust and continue to serve customers. Having now had time for some personal reflection, I have come to the decision that my resignation is in the best interest of Optus moving forward.”
On Friday, Optus verified that the outage resulted from a configuration issue involving more than 90 Cisco routers.
These routers struggled to manage alterations to routing information from Singtel Internet Exchange (STiX) after a routine software upgrade.
The company assured that measures have been implemented to prevent a recurrence of the same issue.
Before assuming the role of CEO in April 2020, Kelly Bayer Rosmarin, aged 47, served as Optus’s deputy CEO for a year.
Yuen Kuan Moon, the group CEO of Singtel, commended Bayer Rosmarin for her positive impact on the company, highlighting increased staff engagement, enhanced financial performance, and market share gains.
“Kelly was hired by Optus at the start of the pandemic, and we appreciate her leadership, hard work, and dedication during this difficult time. We also thank her for her service and dedication to Optus.”
However, following a cyberattack on a company in 2022, Bayer Rosmarin navigated the aftermath of Australia’s largest data breach, preceding the recent outage.
During the Senate hearing on Friday, she emphasized her commitment to recovery from the outage, consistently avoiding comments on her potential resignation.
Facing over two hours of questioning from senators regarding the company’s handling of the outage and communication with the public, media, and government officials, Bayer Rosmarin revealed that she spoke with the communications minister, Michelle Rowland, only four hours into the outage.
She waited until she could reach the office for a crisis meeting.
Acknowledging that the company provided limited media interviews during the outage, she expressed openness to holding press conferences in the future, although she noted that it was “unusual for a CEO” to address the public during such incidents.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese characterized the Optus outage on Monday as a “shocker” and “a complete fail,” finding Bayer Rosmarin’s resignation unsurprising.
He stated, “Michelle Rowland was right on top of it, giving more information than Optus was providing to customers. So, this is a truly regrettable incident.”
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