Thursday, December 02, 2004

Bye-Bye Ziggy

Yesterday it was made public that the CEO of Telstra, Dr Ziggy Switkowski, would be leaving the company. As a shareholder I will be happy to see him go.
Telstra CEO out ahead of full sale

"Dr Switkowski will stand down by July 2005, two years before his contract was due to expire. He will get a payout of at least $2 million."

In the past few years the Telstra share price has fallen about $3 per share (almost 40%), reducing the total value of my direct shareholding by almost $2500.

As if this was not bad enough, one of Dr Ziggy's (failed) deals back in 2001 ended up costing the jobs of myself and many colleagues. In the process a once-thriving South Australian company was reduced to a pale shadow of it's former self.

The doctor will get a golden handshake of $2 million. I wish I could get a job where failure is so well-rewarded!

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