Optus has confirmed two of its senior executives will step down as it continues to face scrutiny over a recent major triple-0 outage.<\/p>\n
In a statement, the telco announced the “planned retirement” of chief financial officer (CFO) and Optus board director Michael Venter, with Andy Giles Knopp being named as Mr Venter’s successor, effective from next April.<\/p>\n
Chief information officer (CIO) Mark Potter will also depart the company in March 2026, with John McInerney appointed as the incoming CIO starting in November 2025.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Optus will welcome Pieter van der Merwe as chief security and risk officer in December, which was previously announced in June.<\/p>\n
Department of Communications not living up to its job title<\/a><\/p>\n The government is determined to avoid wearing any blame for Optus’ failure but also needs to be transparent.<\/p>\n “On behalf of the Optus Board, I want to extend our sincere thanks to Michael Venter for his service as both interim CEO prior to Stephen Rue’s appointment, and most recently as an Optus Board Director,” Optus board chairman, John Arthur, said.<\/p>\n Mr Rue said: “Michael has decided to retire from executive life to pursue a portfolio career, and I wish to thank him for his significant contribution to Optus over the past four years, including the time he spent as interim CEO before I joined the company.<\/p>\n “Following long-term and open discussions, Mark has decided that early next year is the right time to leave Optus after four productive years and having laid strong technology foundations for Optus’ transformation plans.<\/p>\n “I wish him all the best with his next chapter.”<\/p>\n The company has described the leadership changes as “part of planned leadership transitions.”<\/p>\n Series of scandals<\/p>\n Optus has suffered a series of scandals in recent years, the most recent being an Optus network upgrade in September this year that led to a triple-0 outage, which was linked to three deaths.<\/p>\n