Revealed: what Optus said in its farewell video to Kelly Bayer Rosmarin

An internal video, with anonymous quotes purportedly from staff, has celebrated Kelly Bayer Rosmarin’s tenure at Optus, despite it being marred by two reputational crises.

Optus farewelled Kelly Bayer Rosmarin in a 39 second video that praised her tenure. Picture: Martin Ollman

After helming Optus for the past 3½ years, the accident prone telco gave Kelly Bayer Rosmarin a 39 second video send off.

Ms Bayer Rosmarin resigned effective immediately on Monday, almost two weeks after a massive national outage cut off 10 million Australians from phone and internet services with some not even able to call triple-0.

Optus’s communications team prepared an internal video, featuring three anonymous quotes, purportedly from staff, celebrating her leadership despite it being marred by two reputational crises after last year’s cyber attack.

A source close to the matter told The Australian the comments were fabricated in the video. But an Optus spokeswoman said they were genuine staff quotes.

The homely video obtained by The Australian includes a montage of Ms Bayer Rosmarin at the Sydney Mardi Gras, in lounge chairs with F1 driver Daniel Ricciardo — who Optus appointed as its ‘chief optimism officer’ in late 2020 — and in various shots of her with staff.

“Your resilience and leadership during challenging times are truly commendable,” the first quote reads in Optus’s teal and gold livery over upbeat music.

“I truly feel you have made a positive impact on this company,” is the second quote before the final one: “I am proud to be working for a company with such strong leaders who, even under some immense pressure, championed Optus and our dedication to our customers and our people”.

An Optus spokeswoman said the quotes were genuine, saying “the team has been inundated with messages of support” since Ms Bayer Rosmarin’s resignation.

“To say these quotes have been fabricated is simply untrue,” the spokeswoman said.

Ms Bayer Rosmarin’s departure was the crescendo of a series of communication clangers, including pointing the finger at Optus’s parent Singtel for sparking the outage amid denials and clarifications on the exact cause.

Singtel hand-picked telco industry veteran Peter Kaliaropoulos — who was previously considered or the role of the Singapore telco’s CEO — as Optus’s chief operating officer

Optus’s communication with its customers and the general public over the outage was widely criticised, with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese branding it a “complete fail”.

Singtel, which is controlled by the Singapore government, has moved quickly to reassert authority, installing a hand-picked executive, Peter Kaliaropoulos, as Optus’s chief operating officer as it races to restore customer confidence.

Mr Kaliaropoulos has been consulting in Singapore for several years and was previously considered for the role of Singtels Group chief executive, underscoring his seniority and experience.

In a statement to the Singapore Exchange, Singtel described Mr Kaliaropoulos as a “veteran global telecommunications executive”. His previous roles include running Saudi Arabian telco Zain KSA and Singapore’s Starhub.

Singtel has also made Ms Bayer Rosmarin’s exit — which came the next business day after a bruising Senate inquiry into Optus’s meltdown — as smooth as possible to cauterise the damage from her mismanagement of the outage.

Optus chair Paul O'Sullivan described Kelly Bayer Rosmarin as “very brave”. Picture: Bianca De Marchi

Rather than fuelling further criticism of Ms Bayer Rosmarin, Singtel and Optus arranged a series of carefully managed media interviews with Optus chair Paul O’Sullivan — who despite his title serves more in an advisory capacity. He did not make any public comments until Thursday, more than two weeks after the outage, and praised Ms Bayer Rosmarin.

Mr O’Sullivan stayed in the background during the public outcry, noting he had no operating control, with the chief executive reporting to Singtel.

“Kelly was very brave the way she handled herself, in the outage, before the parliamentary hearing and then in stepping down so quickly to avoid becoming a ­distraction,” Mr O’Sullivan said.

Christine Holgate — who served at Telstra and British telcos earlier in her career — could be an outside contender for Optus’s next CEO. Picture Gaye Gerard

Mr O’Sullivan said he was not in the chain of command around the outage. But given his experience in the industry, he played a key role as a sounding board for Ms Bayer Rosmarin in her time at the company.

Singtel is now completing a global search for Optus next chief executive and has installed chief financial officer Michael Venter to act in the role on an interim basis.

Former NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian is understood to have flagged her interest in taking the top job after the telco recruited her to manage its business customers last year. Ms Berejiklian, who is also the executive in charge of communications, was absent from any public and media appearances until late the next afternoon after the outage.

Other contenders include Telstra chief financial officer Michael Ackland and consumer boss Brad Whitcomb. Former NBN chief executive Bill Morrow is another prospect to helm Optus. After leaving NBN in late 2018, Morrow has served as chief executive of US multichannel video programming distributor DirectTV.

Christine Holgate — who previously ran Australia Post and Blackmores, and is now CEO of Team Global Express, formerly Toll — could be a potential outside candidate. Ms Holgate left the UK for Australia in 2002 after she was recruited by former Telstra boss David Thodey to become managing director at the telco.

She had previous telco experience at Cable & Wireless, which she joined in the late 1980s, and was at Energis in the early 2000s. Ms Holgate also has a deep understanding of Singapore, having served as chair of the Australia-ASEAN Council, and appeared in a video with former Singtel CEO Chua Sock Koong five years ago to promote trade between Australia and South East Asia.