There's been another shake-up at Telstra, with Andy Bateman and Inese Kingsmill's roles being removed in a restructure of the marketing department. This is the second raft of top level marketers to have faced restructure under CMO Joe Pollard.
As part of the restructure Pollard has created the executive director of retail marketing role to oversee the overall direction of the brand working with the other customer segment groups. A search is currently underway to fill it.
Andy McFarlane will take on the role of acting director of GES Australia Marketing - a move that is understood to have been planned in. There will be no organisational change to the Marketing Enablement team led by Nick Adams or the RIA team lead by Liz Moore.
Bateman held the role of director of segment marketing, and Kingsmill was consumer marketing lead. Both are currently exploring opportunities within Telstra. It's also understood that both are likely to be exploring roles outside the telco.
Bateman was previously CEO of The Leading Edge and joined Telstra two and a half years ago from a consulting role, while Kingsmill has been with the telco since 2010.
Pollard cleared the decks a few moths ago with a sweeping overhaul of the media unit which saw three senior directors exit including Adam Good, who was director of digital media and content. IPTV head Eric Kearley and Telstra TV MD Ian Davis also left.
At the same time Pollard hired Rebecca Haagsma to take on a role as director of mobility products.
At the time Telstra said: “Given the importance of the media business to Telstra, Joe has restructured the business to position it for future growth.”
On the latest moves Pollard said: "“This is a move I know Andy Bateman has encouraged and supported as part of a planned transition for him in pursuit of broadening his career. I want to thank Andy for his contributions in guiding CMO in its evolution over the last few years, including leading all customer segments in his time and in particular for the last period across Business, GES and international marketing, as well as the Awards programme and the CIC.
“Andy and his team have managed a transformation of the segments at a dynamic and changing industry. I will also support Andy as he considers other internal opportunities over the coming weeks,” Pollard added.
Speaking of Kingsmill, Pollard says that she has her full support in finding roles within Telstra, adding that: “Inese has worked extremely hard in the last year leading the Consumer Marketing group and made a significant contribution to CMO over the last 5 years in guiding our brand to where it is today.”
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