Optus CEO Kelly Bayer Rosmarin resigns after series of major disasters for the company

Kelly Bayer Rosmarin has resigned as CEO of Optus after a series of major controversies under her leadership.

Ms. Bayer Rosmarin was only appointed to the top position on April 1, 2020.

The announcement of her resignation was made on Monday, with Ms Bayer Rosmarin saying it was “the appropriate time to step aside”.

“On Friday I had the opportunity to appear before the Senate to explain the cause of the network outage and how Optus recovered and responded,” she said in a statement.

“Having now had time for personal reflection, I have decided that my resignation is in the best interests of Optus going forward.

“It has been an honor and privilege to lead the Optus team and serve our customers. I wish everyone and the company every success in the future.

His resignation follows a nationwide Optus outage, leaving 10 million customers without internet access and unable to receive calls and texts for up to 12 hours.

In September 2022, Optus suffered a data breach affecting 9.7 million current and former customers, more than a third of the Australian population.

During this month’s blackout, Ms. Bayer Rosmarin, 46, created a public relations disaster of her own when she went missing in action for seven hours while essential services and businesses had difficulty coping.

While Ms. Bayer Rosmarin refused to step up and communicate with irate clients, a fleet of vehicles brought luxury items like throws, shrubs and furniture for a photo shoot at her $15 million mansion.

Even the CEO’s husband, Rodney, admitted that the photo shoot – organized for the architect who renovated the house – was “unfortunate timing”.

Mr Rosmarin told Daily Mail Australia: “They just hadn’t gotten around to photographing it yet and it was happening today.”

Ms. Bayer Rosmarin was born and raised in South Africa, but moved to the United States after earning a scholarship to the prestigious Stanford University.

She earned a degree in industrial engineering and a master’s degree in management science, winning an award for the best graduate.

After college, she moved to California to work in Silicon Valley with established and startup software companies.

She then worked as a management consultant with the Boston Consulting Group and joined the Commonwealth Bank in 2004, where she held several senior positions before being appointed to lead the bank in December 2013.

She joined Optus as Deputy CEO on March 1, 2019 and became its Managing Director exactly one year and one month later.