Optus has appointed a former chief of staff to the then Rudd Government, David Epstein, as its new Director of Corporate and Regulatory Affairs, effective on 23 April.
Epstein will be based in Sydney and will report to Australian country chief officer and CEO group consumer, Paul O’Sullivan. O’Sullivan was formerly Optus’ CEO but moved roles amid a restructure carried out by parent company SingTel earlier this month to aid the push into the mobile advertising market.
He succeeds Maha Krishnapillai, who resigned from Optus last November for personal reasons and was appointed to a newly created role with Australia Post’s retail division in an effort to grow its telco arm.
In the role with the number two telco, Epstein will be responsible for legal, media, government and regulatory functions.
Epstein previously worked at BHP Billiton as head of public affairs, where he managed the company’s global public affairs strategy, government relations and group corporate communications.
Prior to that, Epstein held senior roles within the Federal Government and was also the group executive of government and corporate affairs at Qantas.
According to O’Sullivan, Epstein’s experience working with the government and high profile companies will be beneficial to Optus.
“David joins Optus at an exciting time for our industry. While we have achieved a great deal from a regulatory perspective over the last few years, there is still much work to be done in ensuring we have the correct regulatory settings in place as we move to a new era of convergence, ” O’Sullivan said in a statement.
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