The leader of Telstra's ongoing IT transformation program, Trujillo amigo Tom Lamming, will return to his home country of the United States on 30 June, the telco revealed today.
Tom Lamming
(Credit: Telstra)
Lamming's return to the US follows that of his fellow US colleagues, Greg Winn (also instrumental in Telstra's IT transformation program) who departed in January; former group managing director of Public Policy and Communications, Phil Burgess; and former group head of Marketing, Bill Stewart.
Lamming will be one of the last of the US executives appointed to a key position during the reign of Telstra's CEO Sol Trujillo, who was last week replaced by one-time managing director of IBM Australia and New Zealand and head of Telstra's Enterprise and Government division, David Thodey.
"This has been one of the most challenging but rewarding jobs that anyone could ever do," Lamming said in a statement today.
He has held several roles with Telstra; however, Lamming was first brought across as an advisor for its transformation program, announced in 2005. Lamming today admitted Telstra's IT transformation was the "the largest, most comprehensive and successful I have ever seen".
Following Fiona Balfour's resignation as Telstra's chief information officer (CIO) in 2007, Lamming temporarily took on the role until current CIO John McInerney overtook it last year. Since then Lamming has served in an oversight capacity as senior vice president, Transformation.
Lamming's early work within Telstra attracted a high degree of media attention due to the fact that his appointment had not been publicised, with several outlets claiming he had won a significant remuneration package for work he was completing from the US. However, Telstra later highlighted the importance of the executive's negotiations overseas with technology suppliers that would prove key to the transformation.
Today Lamming heaped praise on Trujillo, saying that "all successful transformations are driven from the top". The Telstra CEO returned the favour saying Lamming's vision for the transformation had resulted in Telstra's staff gaining a single view of its customers.
"Tom is one of those rare individuals with the foresight to understand what needs to be done and the commitment to turn the vision into a reality," said Trujillo. "As a result of Tom's world-class leadership and hard work, Telstra's transformed IT systems are operating at scale and providing a single, integrated view of customers."
They can't leave fast enough - the Robber Barons are leaving the ship at pace with their money bags stuffed full.