Telecom's Aussie boss jumps ship

Mr Broad has been widely tipped to join the newly-created Infrastructure New South Wales.

Telecom has just announced that AAPT chief operating officer David Yuile will become the company's new chief executive, replacing Mr Broad.

Mr Yuile takes up the role from 1 July and will report to Telecom chief executive Paul Reynolds.

Telecom attempted to sell AAPT - for which it paid more than $2 billion -  last year. When it couldn't close a deal, it moved to plan B, selling the division's retail business to iiNet (more of which below).

Tapped by the state
On May 10, media reported that recently-elected New South Wales premiere Barry O’Farrell had tapped Mr Broad (pictured) to head Infrastructure NSW.

Infrastructure NSW is a new agency, created in the wake of the Liberal-Nationals state election win, charged “to improve the identification, prioritisation and delivery of critical public infrastructure across the state” including roads, rail, hospitals and ports.

According to the Sydney Morning Herald, Mr Broad will be joined on the board of Infrastructure NSW by Max ''the Axe'' Moore-Wilton, a former John Howard adviser and boss of Sydney Airport.

Telecom spokesman offered only, “We don't have any comment on the speculation in the Australian press”.

No support
Sydney-based market analyst Paul Budde told NBR, that he wasn't surprised by Mr Broad's reported decision.

"Paul Broad never received the support from Telecom NZ to turn AAPT around," Mr Budde said.

"The strategies around AAPT has changed so many times that it has become very difficult to provide a sound direction for the company. So it looks like he has reached the end of the road with AAPT and a very wise move to now move on."

NBN critic
The AAPT boss is best known in Australia as an out-spoken critic of the public-private National Broadband Network (NBN), which has seen Telstra partner closely with the federal government in an $A11  billion cash-for-assets deal (in some ways, the situation is a mirror image of events on this side of the Tasman – only here the dominant incumbent role is of course played by Telecom, with Mr Broad’s role of underdog played by TelstraClear boss Allan Freeth).

Sellotaping the waka
Telecom bought Australian telecommunications company AAPT at the height of the dot.com boom for more than $A2.3 billion at the height of the dot.com boom.

In 2007, Telecom bought a second Australian telco, wholesale specialist PowerTel, rolling it into AAPT. PowerTel’s boss - Mr Broad – became the new head of the enlarged AAPT.

Former Telecom boss Theresa Gattung said her company had “burned its waka on Bondi Beach” when it bought AAPT, a reference to the fact her company would not, like others, give itself an avenue of retreat.

However, her successor, Paul Reynolds, has shown less enthusiasm for the Lucky Country.

Telecom first tried to sell AAPT – which has always struggled to stay in the black – for around $A400 million.

When there were no takers, Telecom sold off AAPT’s retail division to iiNet in a deal worth around $A60 million.

Telecom shares (NZX: TEL), which have been on a bull run since starting the week on $2.25, were down 1.64% to $2.395 in late trading.