Two senior executives from Optus have stepped down as the embattled telco faces ongoing scrutiny over a major triple-zero outage.
In a statement on Thursday, Optus announced the "planned retirement" of chief financial officer (CFO) Michael Venter, who will also step down as board director.
Andy Giles Knopp was named as the incoming CFO from April 2026.
Chief information officer Mark Potter will also leave the company in March 2026, with John McInerney having been named his replacement from November this year.
The statement announcing the departures didn’t suggest they were related to a recent Optus triple-zero outage, which has been linked to three deaths.
The outage, which occurred after a routine firewall upgrade on 18 September, prevented more than 600 triple-zero calls from connecting in South Australia, the Northern Territory, Western Australia and some parts of NSW.
The calls failed to redirect to another functioning network in the area, despite a legal requirement for the telco to facilitate this.
In response to the incident, the government has fast-tracked new legislation that will mandate telecommunications companies to provide real-time updates on any outages to emergency services, the communications watchdog Australian Communications and Media Authority, and the government.
The Singaporean-owned telco sent emails notifying the federal communications department of the outage to the wrong email address, leaving authorities in the dark for more than a day.
Optus has commissioned an independent review into the incident, and it is also under scrutiny from ACMA.
Optus CEO Stephen Rue thanked both men for their service.
“Michael has decided to retire from executive life to pursue a portfolio career, and I wish to thank him for his significant contribution to Optus over the past four years," he said.
“Following long-term and open discussions, Mark has decided that early next year is the right time to leave Optus after four productive years and having laid strong technology foundations for Optus’ transformation plans.
"I wish him all the best with his next chapter."
— With additional reporting by Australian Associated Press
