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Switkowski appoints yet another ex-Telstra exec to NBN Co

Another day in the new NBN Co, and another former Telstra executive joins the company's ranks to replace chief operating officer Ralph Steffens.
Written by Josh Taylor, Contributor

NBN Co chair Dr Ziggy Switkowski has continued his run of appointing former Telstra executives to the new-look NBN Co team, announcing today that Telstra's executive director for business, commercial, and premium services Greg Adcock will be replacing NBN Co's chief operating officer Ralph Steffens.

Adcock, whose most recent role in Telstra was overseeing Telstra's role in readying pit and duct infrastructure for NBN Co as part of the National Broadband Network deal, has over 20 years at Telstra.

But despite being part of the original negotiating team in Telstra for the AU$11 billion deal, Adcock will not be part of the renegotiation team in NBN Co.

Switkowski said in a statement that Telstra had been cooperative in letting the executive come work for NBN Co.

"I warmly welcome Greg to our company. He will lead NBN Co's network design and deployment activities with a focus on industry partnerships, contract management, operational processes, and systems," Switkowski said in a statement.

"I appreciate the constructive approach taken by Telstra in releasing of its executive to commence his new role immediately."

NBN Co said that as the company now transitions "to an open network architecture including fibre to the node", Steffens would depart the company after two years as chief operating officer.

"On behalf of the company, I thank Mr Steffens for his leadership during the critical formative years of this project and wish him well for the future," Switkowski said.

Adcock joins the ranks of a number of ex-Telstra staff to shift to NBN Co since the change of government, and the commencement of the review into NBN Co including Switkowski, JB Rousselot, and Justin Milne.

In response to Turnbull poaching a number of ex-Telstra staff members for the new-look NBN Co, Telstra CEO David Thodey said last month that it is reflective of the nature of the Australian telecommunications industry for a lot of the industry executives to have had time with the telecommunications giant in their past.

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