John Lindsay has left his role as CTO of ISP iiNet to pursue a consultant role, working with startups.
"John Lindsay is taking a break from the corporate world and setting up as a consultant working with startup and early stage businesses," said an iiNet spokesperson.
Lindsay published a goodbye letter on 31 December, saying “the last two and a bit years have been a career highlight” at the company. He also worked as Internode CTO for 11 years.
Lindsay said some of his key achievements at iiNet include building a global IP network with around 150 gigabits of lit submarine capacity, rolling out Australia's first live VDSL2 network in Canberra, buying Adam Internet, leading and managing more than 150 staff, and growing the Wi-Fi network to more than 1000 access points.
Lindsay also reflected on the stress of being CTO at a huge company. “I'm not going to miss the travel nor the stress of being responsible for about half a billion dollars of costs every year,” he wrote.
"John did an amazing job for the iiNet Group, we will miss him as part of our exec team. But he is taking a well-deserved break and we wish him the best in his future pursuits," said iiNet acting CEO David Buckingham.
The spokesperson said iiNet has no replacement for Lindsay yet. CIO Matthew Toohey and chief business officer (and former CTO) Greg Bader will share the role in the meantime.