Telstra CFO Denholm’s departure a blow to the telco

CFO Robyn Denholm’s move to take the chair at Elon Musk’s Tesla is a distraction Telstra chief Andy Penn didn’t need.

Robyn Denholm will stay with Telstra until May before becoming chair at Tesla. Pic: Britta Campion

Robyn Denholm’s decision to take the chair of Elon Musk’s Tesla instead of remaining as CFO of Telstra, is a huge blow to the telco’s chief Andy Penn.

Denholm, 55, who has been on Tesla’s board since 2014, will stay with Telstra until May next year, giving Penn time to replace her.

But it’s a distraction he didn’t need in the midst of his revamp strategy, known as T22.

As part of the changes Penn surprisingly waved goodbye to former CFO, the highly-regarded Warwick Bray, and in July replaced him with Denholm, who had joined Telstra four years ago as chief operating officer.

When suggestions first emerged that Denholm may take the Tesla chair earlier this year, Telstra executives played down the talk, saying she was committed to staying at the Australian telco.

The move comes after the US Securities and Exchange Commission forced Musk to relinquish his position as chair of the electric carmaker, in a deal after controversial tweets he made about taking the company into private ownership. He remains chief executive.

Denholm came to Telstra (TLS) with strong credentials from her US experience with Sun Microsystems and Juniper, and was a key architect of the T22 strategy, which included cutting 8000 jobs and simplifying customer offers.

Telstra CEO Andy Penn is in the midst of a revamp at the telco. Pic: Aaron Francis

The strategy was launched earlier this year and now Penn will have to proceed without a CFO, having also overseen the departures of former marketing boss Stephen Elop and long-time executive Will Irving, as well as Bray.

The company is under pressure with earnings growth stalled as the company attempts to overcome the loss of high margin fixed line margins with the NBN roll out.