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Telstra promotes McInerney to CIO

Telstra today promoted one of its key internal IT executives to the position of chief information officer, almost two years after its last CIO Fiona Balfour left in February 2007.
Written by Renai LeMay, Contributor

Telstra today promoted one of its key internal IT executives to the position of chief information officer, almost two years after its last CIO Fiona Balfour left in February 2007.

In a statement issued this morning, Telstra said five-year Telstra veteran John McInerney, who has been the telco's executive director of information technology since mid-2007, had been promoted to the CIO and group managing director of IT spot.

McInerney will continue to report to Telstra's IT transformation advisor Tom Lamming, who reports to operations chief Greg Winn.

Lamming will continue to oversee the transformation of Telstra's internal systems, especially its billing systems, while McInerney will take over responsibility for running the broader IT environment.

"For a long time, Tom Lamming has been doing double duty at Telstra as the key figure in our dramatic IT transformation while also acting as CIO," said the telco's chief executive Sol Trujillo, adding that McInerney was an "immensely capable" executive who had been integrally involved in the IT transformation project.

McInerney began his career at PriceWaterhouseCoopers, spending five years at the accounting and then-IT services giant, before joining local IT integrator and consultancy firm the Datum group to lead its business intelligence practice. He spent nine years at the company, spending the final two as its CEO.

Commenting on the appointment, Gartner research director Robin Simpson wrote on his Twitter page that it was good for morale that Telstra had promoted an internal executive to the role.

"He has been responsible for much of the implementation of the transformation," Simpson wrote, adding the appointment reflected Telstra reaching the end of the major part of its IT transformation and returning to focus on "operational IT".

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