X
Government

NBN Co hires HR director

The National Broadband Network Company has nabbed Qantas's former executive general manager of human resources, Kevin Brown.
Written by Liam Tung, Contributing Writer

The National Broadband Network Company has nabbed Qantas's former executive general manager of human resources Kevin Brown to be its HR director.

Brown's appointment, understood to have occurred in the past few weeks, is a significant addition to the NBN Co's expanding line-up of high profile executives beneath chief Mike Quigley.

The former Qantas executive had held the role at the airline since 2001 where he reported to its former chief Geoff Dixon. Brown also has a track record in the networking sector, having previously served at the struggling Nortel Networks. He worked in a variety of positions at Nortel, including human resources and business development roles across Australia, Hong Kong, the UK and the US.

The NBN Co has also hired former Citibank telecommunications analyst Tim Smeallie. According to the Sydney Morning Herald, Smeallie will have to lead the negotiations with Telstra over the role it will play in the $43 billion network, engaging with Telstra's NBN team head Geoff Booth.

ZDNet.com.au understands that Smeallie had done some work for former fibre-to-the-node network bidder Acacia, which was chaired by former Telstra executive Doug Campbell. Campbell is now the chair of Tasmania's National Broadband Network Company.

Editorial standards