Questions about Telstra CEO

Questions about Telstra CEO

By Leo Wellin

In the midst of all the corporate hype about transparency in decision making, being accountable and "taking ownership of the customer", the personal business interests of Telstra's CEO have raised questions in an anti-management newsletter circulating through Telstra.

The newsletter implies that Frank Blount — on a Telstra salary of $1.2 million — has a number of conflicting interests. It cites Blount as a director of the US power company Entergy. Entergy is the parent company of Citipower in Melbourne and, as well as running Big Bend Atomic Power Station in the United States, is in the business of running telephone services from its poles in competition with major telephone companies.

The newsletter also questions why Blount is a director of Caterpillar, the major American heavy earthmoving manufacturer used extensively by Telstra for its network design and construction.

The newsletter asks: "If the upper levels of the already highly paid Telstra management are in receipt of multiple incomes, why are they conducting a vendetta against ordinary staff who are on single incomes and who battle to pay the rent and put food on the table, for having a second job?"

From GLW issue 294