Vocus consumer head to exit as telco restructures again

CEO Kevin Russell

Vocus Group has announced a further restructure of its business, following a significant reshuffle at the start of the year.

The ASX listed telco said that it would appoint a single manager for its consumer business and its SMB-focused Commander division, with the current head of consumer, Sandra de Castro, to exit. Vocus’ consumer CFO, Darryl Inns, will also leave.

De Castro joined the telco in January. Inns was previously CFO at M2, which merged with Vocus in 2016.

Vocus said in a statement released to the ASX that although the consumer and Commander businesses serve distinct customer segments there are “operational similarities that drive commercial logic in managing them together”.

From mid-2019 the merged division will be led by Antony de Jong, who joined the telco in September and currently leads the Commander business.

The January restructure saw the company split its Enterprise & Wholesale business into two operating segments.

In August group managing director and CEO Kevin Russell described Vocus as being engaged in a “two to three year turnaround” after the telco reported an underlying net profit after tax of $127.1 million — down 16 per cent.

“We’re clear that there’s a need for immediate and significant change,” the CEO said.

“There is no question there have been missteps and as a company we haven’t executed well enough on the opportunity in front of us,” Russell said.

Russell joined Vocus in May, succeeding Geoff Horth in the CEO role.