Bill Burton exits BigPond
BigPond has shaken up its management structure in a bid to flatten the executive ranks and ramp up activity to meet the carrier’s “ambitious targets” for the new financial year.
The extensive executive reshuffle was announced to senior staff last week with a surprise footnote coming with the sudden departure of high-profile BigPond director of media Bill Burton.
The reasons behind Burton’s departure remain speculative with Telstra refusing to comment on the restructure, other than to confirm it. Burton joined the IAB board as a director in March and was prolific on the speaking circuit.
At a mobile conference in May, Burton foreshadowed the demise of the WotNext platform and conceded the industry was facing revenue and advertising limitations as customers were suffering from “bill shock” after downloading rich content.
In the memo from BigPond GMD Justin Milne, obtained exclusively by Digital Media, Milne explained that as a consequence of the extensive change of roles and responsibilities within the group, Burton’s role had been made redundant and he would be leaving BigPond to “pursue opportunities outside.”
“Bill leaves us with our collective vote of thanks for the rapid growth we have enjoyed in media revenue and visitor numbers and for positioning our advertising business as a leader in the industry,” Milne said.
Burton who was promoted to the BigPond director role in May last year will be effectively replaced by Brett Law who is currently head of BigPond media production.
While it is unclear if his title will change, Law, a former Anderson consultant who joined Telstra in 2001, will now consolidate a number of functions and look after the P&L responsibilities for music, movies, games, sport BigPond TV and program delivery while also retaining responsibility for Telstra.com.
Fresh from his trip to Cannes for the advertising festival, where Milne said that mobile data browsing was increasing by 79% and 3G media content downloading had increased by 43%, Milne’s internal missive suggested Telstra’s ambitious growth targets necessitated a management overhaul, “making us flatter and faster”. “The changes will also improve integration between our access and media people, as well as BigPond and the wider Telstra.”
The moves come days after the announcement that Kent Heffernan would replace BigPond sales and marketing executive director Amanda Johnston, who is taking the role of head of brand advertising for Telstra.
In other BigPond changes announced by Milne:
• Group manager of BigPond media commercial operations Andrew Cowling and his team will be moved under Law’s team to centralise the financial, planning and budget support for the entire BigPond business.
• Chris Taylor GM advertising BigPond shopping; Michael Padden GM BigPond mobile network and Dale Cohen group manager of BigPond online network in addition to Law, will now directly report to Milne.
• Taylor will also take over network promotions and co-op advertising.
• In addition to his existing role managing BigPond’s relationship with Telstra product management, Padden will oversee new projects including the technology and marketing overhaul of BigPond’s live event platform.
• Responsibility for BigPond news will transfer to GM of innovation and growth Jason Romney, a former tech journalist, lawyer and head of MSNBC.
