Kelly Bayer Rosmarin has resigned as CEO of Optus today, following significant pressure over the 14 hour Optus outage on November 8.
Bayer Rosmarin’s public handling of the the outage was a significant communications and customer service failure, given how little information was provided to customers who found themselves stranded, unable to do business, and in some cases, even dangerously isolated during the outage.
However, after fronting up to the Senate inquiry to face hours of tough questioning on Friday, her resignation today deserves at least some credit. She knows the need to move on to enable the company to rebuild following this PR and trust crisis, and she has done so. But she also knew the need to stay in the position long enough to answer questions publicly on the outage, to give answers to customers and Australia generally so measures can be implemented to avoid significant outages again.
So often, public leaders dig in following significant mess-ups and company failures, becoming a significant distraction in the way of solving other issues. Often again, these leaders inevitably end up resigning anyway or being forced out by a board.
As we have seen only recently, leaders don’t always front up to answer the tough questions. Former Qantas CEO Alan Joyce left the country as he issued his sudden resignation from the post amid controversial circumstances earlier this year, leaving his replacement Vanessa Hudson to front up to a senate hearing.
Bayer Rosmarin’s resignation was announced by Singtel on Monday morning, with Singtel Group CEO Yuen Kuan Moon acknowledging her “leadership, commitment and hard work throughout what has been a challenging period.” He also noted she had “always led with integrity and had all stakeholders’ best interests at heart.”
Optus’ current CFO Michael Venter was named interim CEO.
In the statement, Bayer Rosmarin noted the “opportunity” she had to appear before the senate to expand on the causes of the outage and the response.
“I was also able to communicate Optus’ commitment to restore trust and continue to serve customers,” she said.
“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.”
The Optus outage on November 8 lasted from 4am AEDT to 6pm, affecting 10 million Optus customers, leaving individuals and around 400,000 businesses without phone or internet access.
Thousands of businesses across the country could not use payment systems during the outage, while public transport services also shut down. Stories of people being unable to contact emergency services have also emerged from the outage, while customers with a disability faced additional challenges, especially those who rely on internet-assisted technology.
Bayer Rosmarin apologised for the outage and acknowledged the impact it had on millions of Australians. However, her failure to offer better communication during the outage was significant, as was her failure to better acknowledge the impact of the outage and calls for financial compensation.
Appearing before the Senate on Friday, Bayer Rosmarin avoided questions about whether or not she would be resigning, stating that her “focus is on the team, the customers, and the community.”
Bayer Rosmarin was appointed Singtel Optus CEO at the end of 2019, having spent nine months in the Deputy CEO role and coming across from the Commonwealth Bank of Australia where she was group executive of institutional banking and markets.
Having been appointed just prior to COVID-19, she also stepped up to the helm at what was a pivotal time for telcos in Australia, especially with 5G starting to take hold and the economy further digitising, which were points that she noted in the initial announcement on her appointment.
However, the major disasters Bayer Rosmarin would face in the role proved to be very different from those initially predicted. The Optus outage followed a cyberattack in 2022 that saw the personal information of 10,200 customers being posted online, including Medicare numbers, passport numbers and driver’s licence details.