Outgoing media advisor to Minister of Communications Stephen Conroy, Tim Marshall, will be taking up a role with NBN Co chief Mike Quigley's former employer, Alcatel-Lucent.
Marshall, who has served in the role for about two years, will be leaving Conroy's office on 22 January 2010.
It's not clear yet exactly what role he will play at the networking company, which, along with the likes of Ericsson, Huawei and Nokia Siemens Networks, is vying for a role as a supplier to the government's $43 billion National Broadband Network. However, ZDNet.com.au has confirmed the appointment. Marshall is a former chief editor of industry stalwart Communications Day.
The outgoing media advisor to Conroy will be taking with him intimate knowledge of the government's NBN plans. Alcatel-Lucent Australia, which recently underwent a major headcount reduction, had been the lead integrator on Telstra's massive Next IP core network revamp, which was a key part of its $5 billion technology transformation instigated by former chief, Sol Trujillo.
NBN Co chief executive Mike Quigley had, until 2008, served as its global chief operating officer.
Once one of the most important suppliers to the telco industry's biggest spender, Telstra, the company briefly faced being sidelined after its decision to hedge its bets on work for the first $4.7 billion government NBN proposal on Telstra. The telco had also signed a $3.5 billion memorandum of understanding with Alcatel-Lucent for its proposed fibre-to-the-node network.
