People Telecom CEO to make way for 'great leader'

"As an entrepreneur and a builder of great companies there is a time when one needs to consider bringing in great public company leaders to take the group to the next level," O'Hare told ZDNet Australia.

"And after six years I believe it's time to do this. Too many times I've seen entrepreneurs stay in when the company they build gets enormous and they don't recognise the differing skill sets of professional chief executives to their own," he added.

People Telecom was founded in early 2000. O'Hare also co-founded telco corpTEL back in the mid-1990's and served as its CEO and chairman until the company was sold to AAPT in 1998.

But O'Hare will keep his foot in the People Telecom door.

"Of course as the group's large shareholder I'll remain on the board, intimately involved in the business's future growth and profit plans!" he said.

In a statement sent to the Australian Stock Exchange, People Telecom said it had retained global recruitment firm Spencer Stuart to find O'Hare's replacement.