Telstra's retail boss Gordon Ballantyne, who helped revive the telco giant's fortunes in the mobile market, will leave in December after more than five years with the company.
Mr Ballantyne has led Telstra's consumer, business, media and marketing divisions as retail group executive since October 2013. He also set up its rapidly expanding health business.
He joined the company in June 2010 as consumer head, at a time when the telco giant suffered profit downgrades and had been losing customers to rivals.
Telstra has since re-established its dominance in the mobile market. It has also been investing heavily in newer businesses like health, and in Asia, as it looks to make up for stagnating revenues from its core telephony business.
The company made an annual year profit of $4.23 billion in 2014/15, down one per cent compared to a year ago.
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Given his experience and strong performance, Mr Ballantyne had been seen as a strong contender to replace former chief executive David Thodey, who retired in May. However, the company promoted then chief financial officer Andrew Penn into that role.
"Gordon led the turnaround and growth of our retail business as well as creating exciting new growth ventures such as Telstra Health," Mr Penn said on Wednesday.
Mr Ballantyne will remain in the business until the end of 2015 to provide transitional support and assistance.
He said he planned to enjoy a break before exploring new opportunities.
Telstra said it would announce new arrangements shortly.
Telstra shares dropped four cents to $5.66.
