NBN Co hires ex-Telstra director, ditches ex-Labor man Kaiser

NBN Co has hired ex-Telstra director JB Rousselot to the new position of head of strategy and transformation, while making redundant Mike Kaiser, the company’s head of quality and an ex-Labor politician, in the process.

Rousselot will sit on the company’s executive committee and will report to the CEO. Rousselot will head up Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s Strategic Review of the NBN and help implement any changes that result from the review into NBN Co’s 2014-17 Corporate Plan.

Rousselot had various roles at Telstra between 2003 and 2013, including a stint as an executive director.

NBN Co executive chairman Ziggy Switkowski joined Telstra as CEO in March 1999 and resigned in December 2004.

Between 1998 and 2000, Rousselot was CEO of OzEmail Interline, which was at one time a joint venture between OzEmail Limited, Metro Holding AG and Ideata.

Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull was the chairman of OzEmail between 1994 and 1999.

NBN Co said Rousselot’s newly created head of strategy and transformation position will “incorporate the current activities within the Quality group and also the corporate planning, strategy and decision support functions of the office of the chief finance officer”.

The changes mean the existing head of quality, Mike Kaiser - who was once a Labor party member of Queenland’s Legislative Assembly and later worked for Labor politicians Morris Iemma and Anna Bligh - will be made redundant.

Kaiser’s redundancy and Rousselot’s hiring are effective immediately.

Switkowski said: “Mr Kaiser was one of NBN Co’s first employees and has fulfilled important leadership roles in the formation of NBN Co and its development over four years. He is a well-regarded and committed executive, having worked across the company on many of its biggest initiatives. I thank him for his many contributions and wish him well for the next phase of his career.”