Andy Penn’s one piece of advice to Telstra successor Vicki Brady

Telstra’s outgoing boss has one thing to say to his successor, who will be the telco’s first ever female CEO.

Telstra incoming CEO Vicki Brady. Source: Supplied.

Outgoing Telstra chief executive Andy Penn has one thing to say to his successor Vicki Brady, with whom he’s worked closely for years and who will steer one of Australia’s biggest companies through its ambitious T25 growth strategy.

“Trust your instincts.”

“She needs to chart her own path, which I know she will,” Mr Penn said in an interview. “She is an incredibly capable executive. She knows the industry, she’s got great instincts, and so I would advise her to follow those and I know that she will.”

Reflecting on her appointment, Ms Brady said she only realised she had clear ambitions for the top job at Telstra “relatively recently”. But now she feels ready for all the responsibilities it entails.

“If you’d asked me early on in my career, I would have said yes, I’d like to be CEO at some stage, but only in the last little while as I reflected through this process I was like, ‘yeah, I do really want to be a CEO’, and I feel like I’m ready.

“I’m really proud and I hope it inspires certainly my daughters and other girls and women to stay resilient and really keep chasing your dreams. And I think I think it’s great to see another woman take on a CEO role in this country because I do think role models make a difference when people are thinking about their own ambitions and what’s possible.”

Of Mr Penn, who is stepping down after seven years as CEO, Ms Brady said she “has massive respect” for his leadership and what his accomplishments particularly amid severe cost-cutting and headwinds from the NBN and rival telcos.

“He has incredible resilience and courage,” she said. “They will be the two things for me … Working closely with Andy through some really tough periods, it is it has been extraordinary to see that resilience and see that courage and you know, he’s been a rock for the organisation as we navigated through some really tough times.”

As for what’s next, Mr Penn – who on Wednesday celebrated his 59th birthday – said he is open to board appointments, but is not interested in becoming a so-called ‘professional non-executive director’.

“That’s not really going to interest me,” he said. “I don’t know, I want to make a contribution in a number of the areas that I’m passionate about: digital leadership, technology, innovation, cyber, the arts.

“I’ve really enjoyed my time supporting the government in the cyber security space as well and so that’s an area that interests me. But right now I’m very focused and committed to Telstra until I hand over fully to Vicki. I might hear from some people and get some advice from mentors the like, but I’m not making any decisions right now.”